Burmese Migrants Make Waste Dump Home (SLIDESHOW)

Photos and text from Demotix


Click here for more photos and information on Burma.

On the outskirts of the transient dusty border town of Mae Sot lies the municipal waste dump that has become home to more than 300 Burmese migrants. Life on the dump revolves around the perpetual task of sifting through rotting waste desperately searching for anything that can be sold for recycling to earn enough money to survive. They have escaped the wretched poverty and oppression just some 3 miles away in their homeland of Burma and life on the dump offers them more hope than that offered by the ruling Burmese military regime. There are thousands of migrants who live in the town of Mae Sot, but those living on the dump are the poorest. Hundreds make the daily crossing either over or under the so-called friendship bridge that spans the Moei river, and which provides the difference between hope and despair.

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Comments

[mergina]

As long as we allow human beings to live like this we are Nothing as a Species.

[Riley74]

What? I thought recycling magically made all of my plastics disappear and turn into new plastics! No one told me they just crush most of it into cubes and shift it off to third world countries! My trendy yuppie friends had led me to believe it had solved all of our problems! Oh well, at least Burmese people can still eek a living off of cashing recyclable products into the recycling plants which exist in Burma because in most cases we couldn't find people desperate enough to work in recycling plants here. Capitalism works its magic again.

[LiveLifeNow]

Something is seriously wrong with this world. Goldman Sach profits alone for the year will probably end up over 1 million dollar per worker. On the other hand you have people searching through landfills for food.

[rhubardpi]

In "Nam in 1968, on a hot, sunny, humid day a Lt told another GI and myself to guard a garbage dump. Our job was to keep local Vietnamese folks from coming into the garbage dump for FOOD. The other GI spent the first hour chasing the locals around in the garbage til he was exhausted and covered in filth. I did not do my duty that day, I did nothing to stop hungry people from finding food. "Nam?? It was another huge mistake by the US. Very much like Iraq, starting with the fact both were based on lies. I support the troops. Most of our gov't leaders and a number of military should be hung for treason and fraud against the the American public. My basis is what I saw and tried unsuccessfully to stop in my 28 yrs working for the US gov't. Good night and good luck.