OTHER COUNTRIES

One fourth of Thailand’s estimated 200,000 commercial sex workers are believed to be Burmese.

With limited options for work in Burma, Cambodia and Laos, the chance to go across the border to work on a “fruit farm” or other alleged business is a chance to earn money for a family’s clothes, food, education, and medicine. In Burma, ethnic Shan women are often rape targets for army troops — a claim denied by the ruling junta.