Are you sure foo.pl is not in your PERL5LIB path? Also do you have any $SIG{__DIE__} handlers in your script? Here's some example code that works as expected for me

# foo.pl
print "this is a "syntax" error";

# test.pl
eval q{
    my $fl = "foo.pl";
    require "$fl";
};

__output__

Bareword found where operator expected at foo.pl line 1, near ""this i
+s a "syntax"
        (Missing operator before syntax?)
String found where operator expected at foo.pl line 1, near "syntax" e
+rror""
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Also note that your qq{} is being interpolated so $file will be seen in your string as whatever it's value is.
HTH

_________
broquaint