American Photography 27 Winners

The Landfill - Burmese Migrant Workers

Children of Burmese migrants look for onions in trash dumped on a landfill in the border town in Mae Sot, Thailand. Surviving in Burma can be so difficult that even working and living on a Thai landfill is a viable alternative. Thailand alone is believed to be home to up to two million Burmese migrants and refugees; Bangladesh, a poor country already struggling to feed its own, has up to a quarter of a million Burmese.

The Landfill - Burmese Migrant Workers

Two Burmese teenage boys sleep early in the morning in a stack of hay close to the landfill where they collect scrap for a living. They have chosen to sleep right beside where the garbage trucks arrive so they can get in line first when the trucks come in the middle of the night or early morning.