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A JAMAICAN asylum-seeker in Leeds was detained by immigration officials yesterday and is set for deportation.
Orashia Edwards, 32, is seeking asylum to escape persecution for his bisexuality in Jamaica and fears for his life if he is returned.
Amnesty International has warned that homophobic violence is rising in Jamaica.
Mr Edwards is being held at Morton Hall detention centre in Lincolnshire.
He has family in Leeds — including his mother and a daughter — and a community campaign led by the Leeds No Borders group is pressing for him to be allowed to stay in Britain.
His long-term partner in Leeds, Michael Mardell, said Mr Edwards would “prefer to be a dead man than get on a flight to die.”
Mr Mardell said: “If he goes back to Jamaica, his life is at risk.
“I hope nothing happens, but what will the UK government say if it does?”
Mr Edwards’s mother Vienna Brown said her son’s mental health has become “so bad” in the past few years.
She fears her son will commit suicide “rather than get on a plane to die.”
