A 49-year-old Nigerian man has allegedly died in Calgary, after a confrontation with two Canada Border Services Agency officers, who were charged to ensure his deportation on Tuesday.
The Border Services Agencies said, the Nigerian citizen was on KLM airlines flight 678 bound for Amsterdam.
On its Twitter handle, @CanBorder, the agency wrote, “On August 7, 2018, while attempting to remove a foreign national from Canada, an altercation took place between the individual and the two CBSA officers on board a flight from Calgary prior to its departure. The individual went into medical distress and was transported to hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.”
The man was declared dead by about 4:30pm on Tuesday but the Canadian border agency didn’t reveal his identity, because his next of kin have not been informed.
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CBC News identified the man as a Nigerian, via documents from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Immigration Division. He was known to have been engaged in a lengthy battle to stay in Canada.
An autopsy performed Wednesday did not confirm a cause or manner of death. Further testing can take up to six months, said Staff Sgt. Colin Chisholm with Calgary Police Service’s homicide unit.
“We will do a complete, thorough investigation. These investigations take time, and like any investigation, especially in this investigation, we’re going to wait for official autopsy results to come back,” Chisholm told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
A detention hearing transcript from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Immigration Division on July 26 said he was detained on the grounds that he likely wouldn’t appear voluntarily for his flight, due to comments he made saying he wouldn’t allow himself to be removed from Canada.
He first arrived in Canada in 2005.
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