In The Time of Monsters | Pulling wings off butterflies ...

[Ambrose Musiyiwa]

When communities are in distress, the first reports on that distress come from the communities themselves. If these voices are not heeded, the harms they are complaining of become institutionalised. They become systemic. Normal. Unremarkable. Banal.

It is horrifying to read, in January 2026, that the Home Office is torturing refugees and asylum seekers as punishment for crossing the English Channel to seek refuge in Britain whilst being Black or Brown.

The Guardian reports that the asylum seekers - from conflict zones that include Sudan, Afghanistan and Iran - 'accuse the Home Office of subjecting them to arbitrary detention, denial of legal representation, inadequate medical care, degrading treatment and severe psychological harm.'

The people assert that they came to the UK 'in the pursuit of safety, dignity and a chance to live a peaceful life', and are 'calling on the UN and human rights groups to urgently investigate conditions that people detained for deportation under the 'one in, one out' scheme are held in.'

Once upon a time, Britain was the world's leading slave trading empire, and France was the third. 

It is horrifying that in 2026, Britain and France are, once again, in the business of trading in and treating racialised humans as cargo and commodities that can be traded between nations.

Kind regards,

Ambrose Musyiwa

Coordinator, Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series

Ambrose Musiyiwa | Coordinator, Journeys in Translation (Journal Article; Video Playlist), and The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series (Concept Note; Call for Submissions; Funding Appeal; Video Playlist) | (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)