Delroy Edwards (1959 – 12 November 2005) was a Jamaican refugee who, after being refused political asylum in the United Kingdom, was killed by Yardie gang members a few days after his deportation to Jamaica. The refusal to grant him asylum and the later deportation were publicly criticised, and called into question some of the immigration policies of the Home Office and the Immigration Adjudicator. A longtime resident of Kingston, Edwards was frequently harassed during the 1990s after refusing to participate in criminal activities of a

Yardie Yardie (or Yaadi) is a term often used, particularly within the Caribbean expatriate and Jamaican diaspora, to refer to people of Jamaican origin, though its exact meaning changes depending on context. The term is derived from the Jamaican pa ...

street gang affiliated with the

People's National Party The People's National Party (PNP) is a social-democratic political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by independence campaigner Osmond Theodore Fairclough. It holds 14 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives, as 96 of the 227 local go ...

(PNP), with several attempts on his life, including an arson attack which killed two of his daughters, and serious gunshot wounds in 1995 and 1998. In 2001, he fled to Great Britain and formally applied for

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another ent ...

. While residing in London, he became engaged to Jane Lowe and had a daughter, Taneika, with her before his deportation. Although Lowe attempted to provide adequate legal representation for Edwards, his frequent transfer between three immigration centres and delayed responses from immigration officials made a solicitor's attempt to appeal his deportation difficult. Despite his claims of persecution (including an incident in which he been warned by an unidentified individual that he would be killed if he returned to Jamaica) and as showing the wounds in his shoulders and hands, he was declared an

economic migrant An economic migrant is someone who emigrates from one region to another, including crossing international borders, seeking an improved standard of living, because the conditions or job opportunities in the migrant's own region are insufficient. Th ...

by the Home Office and put on a flight to Jamaica after being held for eight days at

Campsfield House Campsfield House was an immigration detention centre located in Kidlington near Oxford, England, operated by private prison firm Mitie under contract with the British government. It was the site of a number of protests from human rights camp ...

in Oxfordshire,

Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre is an immigration detention facility in Harmondsworth, London Borough of Hillingdon, near London Heathrow Airport run by Mitie. Harmondsworth, which neighbours the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, ho ...

near

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

and

Haslar Immigration Removal Centre Haslar Immigration Removal Centre (formerly known as Haslar Prison) was an immigration detention centre, located in Haslar (near Gosport), Hampshire, England. The centre was operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. The centre closed in 2016 wi ...

near

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite ...

. He reportedly went into hiding upon his arrival in Kingston, but was killed on the doorstep of an East Kingston house he had been staying at, nine days after his return.

External links

BBC News: Man killed days after deportation
by Simon Hardy
A culture of disbelief
by Lester Holloway {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Delroy 1959 births 2005 deaths Jamaican murder victims People murdered in Jamaica People deported from the United Kingdom