Canadian Humanitarian Staff Members Detained in Ethiopia

Ethiopian authorities held 18 Canadians in Gondar, Ethiopia. (Wikimedia Commons)

Ethiopian authorities detained 18 Canadians in a police station in Gondar for allegedly practicing medicine without permission and dispensing expired medication, according to Canadian Humanitarian Organization for International Relief, an NGO based in Alberta. Canadian Humanitarian confirmed that all of the detained Canadian employees returned to Canada on March 12.

Of the 18 detained, five were released on February 28. Among the 13 held longer were three staff members and ten volunteers, according to Canadian Humanitarian spokesperson Justin Steed. Two Ethiopian staff members were also detained.

According to Liam Swiss, Memorial University sociologist and president of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development, smaller organizations such as Canadian Humanitarian might not have the “clear operating guidelines” that larger non-profit organizations do to prevent such complications from arising in other countries.

Steed claims that “just like all of our trips, our team and organization followed all necessary steps and protocols to ensure our group had all permits needed to provide medical support and care while in Ethiopia.” 

In response to the allegations of dispensing expired medication, Steed says that “While we cannot comment on the specifics of the expiry of the medication, we can with confidence say that all medicine and care offered by our team was safe.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Zuk, a dentist of Red Deer, Canada, said that “there has been a practice, where it has been common, that expired goods have been donated without any second thought on the matter. This will probably wake up the industry that it’s not acceptable.” 

Zuk explains how expired products can become contaminated because the packaging is not designed to keep the products sterile for a long time. Products also lose their effectiveness after expiration.

Jillian Kohler, the director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre for Governance, Accountability and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector, added nuance to the conversation by explaining that doctors are generally not supposed to dispense expired medicine, but the issue is case-specific.

“We don’t actually know what drugs were being distributed and how far off they were from their expiration date. Was it one day? Was it two years? And it really depends on what type of medicine that they were distributing… If we’re talking about a day or two, it shouldn’t be significant. If it was longer, it possibly could be,” says Kohler.