For generations, the Kui people of Southeast Asia watched their language fade, their ceremonies disappear, and their communities drift apart – separated by borders they had no say in drawing. Something is shifting.
Cheap methamphetamine from Myanmar is flooding Thailand’s Lahu communities, where poverty and decades of neglect have left young people with few alternatives. But some are fighting back – with ancient rituals, a shoestring charity and, for the first time, the law on their side.
Thailand’s anti-money laundering office has voted to seize about 418 million USD in assets from alleged scam networks linked to Cambodia. But hundreds of fraud victims who lost their savings may face a years-long wait to see if they’ll ever get their money back.
Thailand’s facial recognition banking rules were meant to stop fraud. Instead, criminal syndicates now traffic people to Cambodia, hold them captive, and force them to scan their faces to authorise fraudulent transactions – then victims return home to face prosecution.
The Maniq have inhabited Thailand’s southern forests since before they were declared protected areas. As wildlife disappears and legal restrictions tighten, their children are the first generation to attend school – and may be the last to remember the old ways.
A Thai court acquitted eight people of criminal charges in a landmark ruling that campaigners hope will improve protection for thousands of victims trapped by increasingly sophisticated criminal networks operating across Southeast Asia.
Thailand has long relied on Myanmar’s migrant workforce to power its economy. But as civil war refugees joined economic migrants, a wave of digital disinformation has weaponised immigration anxiety – echoing patterns seen worldwide.
They fled Vietnam with nothing but hope, only to find themselves caught between an increasingly hostile homeland and a reluctant host country – this is the story of Thailand’s Vietnamese Christian refugees.
In the mountains of northern Thailand, a woman’s quest to reclaim the Mlabri’s lost dignity has helped the once-marginalised ethnic group gain recognition and a voice in their own future.
For generations, the Kui people of Southeast Asia watched their language fade, their ceremonies disappear, and their communities drift apart – separated by borders they had no say in drawing. Something is shifting.
Cheap methamphetamine from Myanmar is flooding Thailand’s Lahu communities, where poverty and decades of neglect have left young people with few alternatives. But some are fighting back – with ancient rituals, a shoestring charity and, for the first time, the law on their side.
Thailand’s anti-money laundering office has voted to seize about 418 million USD in assets from alleged scam networks linked to Cambodia. But hundreds of fraud victims who lost their savings may face a years-long wait to see if they’ll ever get their money back.
Thailand’s facial recognition banking rules were meant to stop fraud. Instead, criminal syndicates now traffic people to Cambodia, hold them captive, and force them to scan their faces to authorise fraudulent transactions – then victims return home to face prosecution.
The Maniq have inhabited Thailand’s southern forests since before they were declared protected areas. As wildlife disappears and legal restrictions tighten, their children are the first generation to attend school – and may be the last to remember the old ways.
A Thai court acquitted eight people of criminal charges in a landmark ruling that campaigners hope will improve protection for thousands of victims trapped by increasingly sophisticated criminal networks operating across Southeast Asia.
Thailand has long relied on Myanmar’s migrant workforce to power its economy. But as civil war refugees joined economic migrants, a wave of digital disinformation has weaponised immigration anxiety – echoing patterns seen worldwide.
They fled Vietnam with nothing but hope, only to find themselves caught between an increasingly hostile homeland and a reluctant host country – this is the story of Thailand’s Vietnamese Christian refugees.
In the mountains of northern Thailand, a woman’s quest to reclaim the Mlabri’s lost dignity has helped the once-marginalised ethnic group gain recognition and a voice in their own future.
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