Former child soldier deported for 'serious criminality' managed to sneak back into Canada

A former child soldier from Sierra Leone who dodged deportation from Canada for a decade has been sentenced to five months in jail for returning to this country illegally.

Ibrahim Jalloh, a convicted fraudster and drug trafficker, was ordered out of the country in June 2012 for “serious criminality,” but he wasn’t actually deported until Dec. 29, 2023. Jalloh was sentenced earlier this spring in Alberta’s Court of Justice after police found him in Calgary on Dec. 31, 2025, contrary to an order not to return to Canada.

“He deliberately entered Canada in the face of knowing that he was not allowed to do so. He did not enter by accident, nor did he enter believing that he was permitted to be in Canada. He chose to enter illegally and surreptitiously, and to hide once he arrived,” Justice Indra Maharaj wrote in her sentence.

The court heard that “sometime before Dec. 22, 2025, Mr. Jalloh entered Canada, through the Vancouver port, without authorization.”

That’s around the time the Canada Border Services Agency got wind that he’d returned to this country.

Once the Calgary Police Service caught up to him at the end of last year, Jalloh was ordered deported again.

The 36-year-old, born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, “was recruited against his will into the Rebel army as a child soldier during the Sierra Leone civil war,” said the April 29 decision.

“During his time as a child soldier, Mr. Jalloh was exposed to extreme violence and the trauma of armed conflict. He was compelled to commit atrocious acts against others. He asserts that he suffered severe psychological trauma as a result of this experience.”

After the war, Jalloh reunited with his father “and relocated to Canada for safety reasons,” said the decision, which notes he entered Canada legally in July 2007 at the age of 18, and was granted permanent resident status.

“His criminal record commences in 2010 (when he was approximately 21 years old) and is comprised of one conviction for fraud under $5000, two convictions for obstructing a peace officer, two convictions relating to trafficking and possession of a controlled substance, and more than two dozen convictions for failing to comply with court orders.”

His criminal ventures didn’t stop there.

“During the decade between being ordered deported and being removed from Canada, Mr. Jalloh acquired dozens of convictions including two convictions for obstructing police officers, an additional drug-related offence, and numerous charges of non-compliance,” said the decision.

That “makes his illegal entry into Canada more grievous as he has been deemed inadmissible because of his conduct here, not for administrative or innocuous reasons,” Maharaj said.

When Jalloh was returned to Sierra Leone at the end of 2023, “he was kidnapped, attacked, and received medical attention in hospital on two occasions, all because he was identified as a child soldier and subjected to harm by way of retribution,” said the decision.

“Affidavits filed on behalf of Mr. Jalloh stated that if he returns to Sierra Leone, he will be at real risk of further abduction, serious bodily harm, or even death.”

Jalloh told immigration officials “that he fled Sierra Leone in 2025 for fear of his life and, through a series of transfers through several countries, ended up returning to Canada.”

The Crown recommended that he be sentenced to 15 months in jail. Jalloh’s lawyer argued 45 days behind bars would be “a proportionate sentence in the circumstances.”

The judge took Jalloh’s claims of persecution in Sierra Leone in 2024 and 2025 with a grain of salt.

“The evidence of persecution provided by the defence is compelling at a superficial level. However, when the timing of the allegations of abduction and assault are examined carefully, there are gaps in the timeline,” Maharaj said.

“The defence made the best argument possible based on that evidence. However, I find that the evidence is not sufficiently reliable and I am not inclined to rely upon it as mitigating.”

More to the point, said the judge, Jalloh wasn’t charged with fleeing Sierra Leone.

“He is charged with, and pleaded guilty to, entering Canada without authorization. That is the offence and the conditions in Sierra Leone that may have compelled him to flee that country are not mitigating with respect to this offence. Had Mr. Jalloh fled Sierra Leone and entered any country other than Canada, the offence would not have been committed, and this matter would not be before the Courts in Canada and, in that case, the conditions that he faced in Sierra Leone would have been irrelevant.”

But Maharaj did see Jalloh’s history as a child soldier as mitigating. She accepted that he “suffered psychological trauma in his youth as a result.”

Despite being given the chance to escape his war-torn homeland and “start anew in Canada, Mr. Jalloh chose to disobey the laws of Canada and to commit numerous offences,” said the judge. “Having made those choices, he again chose to defy the order prohibiting him from entering Canada without authorization. Mr. Jalloh’s criminal record demonstrates a disregard for the laws of Canada, a disregard that was repeated when he committed the offence of entering Canada without authorization. His moral culpability is elevated as a result of his own conduct.”

• Opinion: Why are children still being recruited to fight in horrifying adult wars?
• One in eight children found at risk of becoming child soldiers

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