Civil rights groups have decried the unexplained deaths of two foreign nationals in one week while in Canadian immigration custody awaiting deportation.
"These sudden and successive deaths in the custody of CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) are troubling," Monia Mazigh, director of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, said in a statement yesterday.
The CBSA reported the deaths of two persons at Toronto area detention facilities, but gave no cause of death or other details.
According to the ICLMG, Francisco Javier Romero Astorga, from Chile, was found Sunday "in his cell without vital signs."
A week earlier, Melkioro Gahungu of Burundi, committed suicide, according to unnamed sources cited by the rights groups.
The ICLMG and the immigration rights coalition End Immigration Detention Network noted that since 2000 there have been 14 "suspicious deaths" of immigration detainees in Canada.
"The circumstances of these deaths are shrouded in secrecy and to our knowledge no one has been held accountable," said Mazigh, who called for a government investigation.
