The Burmese Junta has been in power for 48 years. It is a rule of harsh physical and psychological oppression.
On a day to day basis, the Burmese people are just trying to get by. But even that is becoming increasingly difficult. The regime’s faulted economic policies have led to a 20-30% yearly inflation rapidly rendering salaries useless. An average Burmese live on less than a dollar per day. Today, a minimum wage buys 8-10 times less basic commodities like rice, salt, sugar and cooking oil than 20 years ago. The country once dubbed The Rice Bowl of Asia can now hardly feed itself and has gone from being the richest in the region to one of the world's most impoverished nations.
Add to the mix political and religiuous persecution and a war on ethnic minorities and you have the recipe for mass immigration.
App. two million Burmese of all ethnicities is thought to be living in Thailand.
On a garbage site in the border town of Mae Sot a few hundred of them try to make a living out of sorting the garbage and reselling scrap.
