Improve mental health services for Edmonton deportee, urges Black Lives Matter
Andrea Huncar | CBC News | Posted: October 7, 2016 2:14 PM | Last Updated: October 7, 2016
Group laments 57 ‘missed opportunities’ to offer mental health support to convicted criminal Abdikarim Gelle
Black Lives Matter Edmonton is urging authorities to provide better mental health supports to a man awaiting deportation who has been detained without charge for months.
"We really need to find help for him," said Ufuoma Odebala-Fregene, immigration consultant and executive member of Black Lives Matter Edmonton.
"We need to engage the mental health system to find out why they are not taking him because that's clearly an issue."
- The Edmonton man no country wants
- Canada's immigration detention program to get $138M makeover
- Jamaican Alvin Brown finally deported but damages urged for his 5-year immigration detention
For at least eight months, authorities have held convicted criminal Abdikarim Gelle in the Edmonton Remand Centre as they try to deport him, even though he has served his time.
Somalia won't accept Gelle, 31, because he suffers from mental illness. Transcripts from Gelle's detention reviews show Canadian authorities hope that decision will change.
In the meantime, the tribunal has ruled that Gelle is too dangerous to release.
We need to engage the mental health system to find out why they are not taking him
- Ufuoma Odebala-Fregene
Gelle, who arrived in Canada as a 13-year-old refugee from Somalia, has racked up 57 convictions as an adult for crimes including sexual assault, assault of a peace officer and trafficking cocaine. Gelle failed to appear in court and breached his probation for about a third of his convictions.
Documents show Somali authorities have told Canadian officials they will not accept deportees suffering from mental illness.
Gelle suffers from a long list of conditions which began showing up as a youth including schizoaffective disorder, chronic psychosis and cognitive delay that results in delusions, deficient judgement, hearing voices and other consequences.
Officials have looked into transferring Gelle to Alberta Hospital, according to detention review transcripts. However, a forensic psychiatrist with Alberta Health Services has indicated the psychiatric hospital in Edmonton won't take Gelle because he can't be easily transitioned into the community, and won't comply with his treatment plan.
Despite repeated requests from CBC News, neither Alberta Health Services or the Canadian Border Services Agency has provided comment.
'A lot of people dropped the ball'
Odebala-Fregene said BLM members found Gelle's case shocking, noting his mental health issues appear to have been identified shortly after arriving in Canada as a youth.
"A lot of people dropped the ball," said Odebala-Fregene. "Because if he has 57 convictions, it means we had 57 trials and this wasn't picked up?"
She pointed out that people have the ability to plead not criminally responsible, and that if Gelle had, perhaps he would already be in the mental health system receiving proper treatment.
Gelle's mother Asili Gelle said as her son returned to jail over the years his mental health deteriorated.
Asili is his legal guardian but said she feels lost trying to navigate the justice system. She said dealing with her son's crisis took up all her time, leaving her depressed and with little time or energy to improve her English.
"I'm lost," she told CBC News. "I don't know how to navigate the system. I don't know what to do."
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council For Refugees, said there is inadequate support for newcomers with mental illness and "people end up going into a spiral where there's more criminality." She added that increased mental health problems, ends up costing everyone — the victims and the taxpayers — and it causes terrible trauma to the family.
She said people can spend years in jail as Canadian authorities try to overcome the barriers to their deportation.
She said people can spend years in jail as Canadian authorities try to overcome the barriers to their deportation.
"It's very common to find people with psychiatric problems in immigration detention and often for long periods," said Dench. "Their illness makes it more difficult for them to get released and often they're not getting the right medical support while they're in detention."
She pointed out that these people have already served their criminal sentences.
Really he's one of ours even if he doesn't have legal citizenship - Janet Dench
"Like anybody else they should be able to to move on from it and yet they end up serving a second term of immigration detention," she said.
Dench also encouraged authorities to recognize situations where it's not compatible with basic human rights to send people back.
She said returning to Somalia "can be the equivalent to a death sentence" for people with serious mental health problems.
"Really he's one of ours even if he doesn't have legal citizenship,' said Dench. "He came to Canada as a child so I think that we need to take our responsibility for what he has become.
"He wasn't growing up in Somalia. We can't blame what he turned into on Somalia. And why should we deport the people that we have failed to settle and support...appropriately."