Seeking Asylum in the Trek Universe
Y'all WE DID A LIVE SHOW!!! Behold Becca and Ryan discussing asylum seekers/refugees in the universes of Trek and "the real." Recorded live as part of the IDIC Podcast Festival hosted by Women at Warp this past July 17-18, 2021. Donate to Never Again Action.
Hit it.
P.S. seriously check out the other podcasts in this festival, they are LEGIT
What We Watched
Short Treks S1: Brightest Star
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night DS9 6x17
Honorable Mentions
References
Memory Alpha - Political asylum
Migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants: What’s the difference? via International Rescue Committee
Currently, there are 68.5 million men, women and children escaping war, persecution and political turbulence. These are refugees and asylum seekers.
There are others who are looking for jobs or an education—they are usually called migrants—and people who want to live permanently in another country—immigrants.
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her home because of war, violence or persecution, often without warning…. An official entity such as a government or the United Nations Refugee Agency determines whether a person seeking international protection meets the definition of a refugee, based on well-founded fear.
An asylum seeker is someone who is also seeking international protection from dangers in his or her home country, but whose claim for refugee status hasn’t been determined legally.
America’s asylum system is broken. Here’s how Biden could fix it. by Nicole Narea via Vox
Since 2014, the majority of asylum seekers arriving at the US Southern Border are from “Central America’s “Northern Triangle” — Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. For years, these countries have suffered from gang violence, government corruption, extortion, and some of the highest rates of poverty and violent crime in the world. The pandemic-related economic downturn and a pair of hurricanes late last year that devastated Honduras and Guatemala, in particular, have only exacerbated those longstanding problems. Many of the migrants arriving on the southern border, sometimes in large caravans, likely felt they had no choice but to seek refuge elsewhere — as is their right under US and international law.”
Reproductive Abuse is Rampant in the Immigration Detention System by Brigitte Amiri via ALCU
***a government-contracted doctor repeatedly performed sterilizing procedures on women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody without their knowledge or consent.
In 2017, groups working with young immigrants discovered that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which has custody over immigrants under age 18 who come to the country without parents, had instituted a policy of blocking pregnant young people from accessing abortion care and trying to coerce them to carry pregnancies to term against their will.
Numerous pregnant women detained by Border Patrol recounted being told by officers to get abortions, all while being held in crowded, unsanitary facilities with little access to food or water.
During the first two years of the Trump administration, the number of undocumented women who miscarried while in government detention nearly doubled.
More immigrant women say they were abused by Ice gynecologist by Victoria Bekiempis via The Guardian
***“Petitioners were victims of non-consensual, medically unindicated and/or invasive gynecological procedures, including unnecessary surgical procedures under general anesthesia, performed by and/or at the direction of [gynaecologist Dr Mahendra Amin],” the petition said. “In many instances, the medically unindicated gynecological procedures Respondent Amin performed on Petitioners amounted to sexual assault.”
*** at ICE privately operated Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Georgia.
3 asylum seekers on why they decided to flee for the US via VOX
