Signifying Burnham, Refugees and the English Channel

[Ambrose Musiyiwa]

Dear Colleagues,

On 30 July 2026, four people died in the English Channel while trying to reach and seek refuge in Britain (BBC News, 30 July 2026).

The BBC says one of the deaths, along with injuries to at least six people, one of whom was a child, occurred to a boat that had been 'neutralised' and that in another boat three women were found dead. Reporting on the same incidents, The Guardian reveals that eyewitness evidence shows that French authorities injured and killed the people. 

On the same day, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the UK had made 'significant progress' in reducing the number of arrivals and had more work to do to reduce the numbers even further. 

The people Burnham is referring to as 'small boats', 'arrivals' and 'numbers' are refugees mainly from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Somalia and Sudan (Statistics on small boat Channel crossings. House of Commons Library briefing paper, 28 May 2026) who are coming to the UK because they believe they will be safe and can have a chance at life here (The Guardian, 5 January 2026).

On 4 February 2026, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood MP told the Home Affairs Select Committee that the Home Office is brutalising refugees using the English Channel “to prove concept that this could be done, that it was possible to overcome legal hurdles, practical barriers and obviously we have shown that it can be done and is being done” (Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood MP questioned on the work of the Home Office - Home Affairs Committee. UK Parliament live stream, 4 February 2026: 1 hr 23 mins 43 sec in).

Because of how the British establishment has stopped seeing African and Asian refugees as human, in 2024 alone, 69 refugees drowned in the English Channel (Deaths in the Channel – what needs to change. Refugee Council Briefing paper, January 2025). The killings that occurred on 30 July 2026, and the deaths of the three women and one man, bring the total number of such deaths to close to or more than 200 since 2018.  

Unless the British establishment reinstates family reunion, and unless it provides safe routes to the mainly African and Asian refugees who are using the small boats, Britain will continue making 'progress' in reducing the number of arrivals because refugees will continue drowning and dying or going missing in the English Channel.

If you can, please email or write to your Member of Parliament and other political representatives, trade union, social, religious, political, professional and other groups, associations and affiliations and ask them to ask Andy Burnham and his government to stop playing snuff politics with the lives of refugees who are using the English Channel. Please also ask:

1. Who are the 200 people who have drowned in the English Channel since 2018? Where were they coming from? What were their hopes and dreams? What led to their deaths? What steps has the British government taken to ensure the families of the deceased get closure? And how is the British state memorialising these 200 lives?
2. What steps is the British government taking to make sure that the remains of all who drown in the English Channel are recovered and that the families of the deceased are informed and that the deceased are given proper burials?
3. What happens to unrecovered human remains in the English Channel? How do marine, commercial, fishing and other systems interact with the remains? With what results, effects and implications? 
4. Given that the English Channel is also a site of commercial fishing, what are the implications of how some of the unrecovered remains are consumed by marine life that is then harvested from the site and sold and consumed domestically and internationally?
5. What steps is the British government taking to ensure that the multi-million or multi-billion pound (£) deals it is making with private contractors, state and non-state actors and French authorities do not contribute to further refugee deaths in the English Channel, in so-called migrant hotels, disused military barracks and other sites and detention centres it is isolating and warehousing the refugees in or during removal attempts or after removal?

Kind regards,

Ambrose Musiyiwa
Coordinator, Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series

Ambrose Musiyiwa | Coordinator, Forced Migration and The Arts (Blog), Journeys in Translation (Journal Article; Video Playlist), and The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series (Concept Note; Call for Submissions; Video Playlist; Funding Appeal) | (Ed.) [New Book] Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024. Co-edited with Munya R from the migrants' rights collective, Regularise); Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2023); Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020)

[Ambrose Musiyiwa]

Dear Colleagues,

Sometime ago I shared a link to a conversation I had with poets Loraine Masiya Mponela and Dadirai Tsopo on the challenges African women experience in the asylum system in England.

In 2012, I had the privilege of accompanying the Zimbabwe Association Choir as a videographer when the choir gave a performance at Leicester Cathedral to mark Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee visit to the city. 

At the celebration, the choir gave a performance that featured songs that include ‘Shosholoza’, originally sung by Zimbabwean migrant miners to the rhythm of swinging axes digging for  diamond and gold in South Africa’s mines, and songs about how the immigration and asylum system separates families ('Changu Chimwe Chana' (My Other Child)).

Also among the songs was ‘Leicester Yedu iNhamba Hwani (Our Leicester is Number One)’ in which the choir sang about how Leicester, their city, their Queen, their St Martins [House], their association, and their association’s leader were all ‘Nhamba Hwani’(No. 1) when choir and association members arrive at things that are hard, things that are difficult. 

If the choir lived in your village, town or city and were performing there, the things they say about Leicester, they would say about you.

A few weeks after the performance, the choir received word that Her Majesty The Queen commended them for the carnivalesque atmosphere they and other groups created at Leicester Cathedral with their performances.

A few years later, a number of the choir's members were deported after the Home Office turned down their asylum applications. 

In 2026, as I write this, one of the association's members - an amazingly talented artist - is still in the immigration and asylum system, and is slowly being ground down by the hostile environment. 

She needs to raise £800 so that her solicitor can make representations to the Home Office on her behalf.

To support her, the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series is donating all proceeds from August 2026 sales of Japa Fire and From Here to There to our friend's fundraising effort.

If you would like to, you can also support the effort by donating through Buy Me a Coffee. If you reference the donation, "No. 1", I will make sure it gets to her.

And please spread the word if you can.

Kind regards,