Southeast Asia Globe
Women in Rohingya camps face an epidemic of gender based violence
The world’s largest refugee camp is no haven for women and girls. Previously viewed as a safe place of refuge from persecution in Myanmar, Rohingya women and girls face daily risks of violence and abuse. The Rohingya camps braced for, were hit, and have largely recovered ...
DAYNA SANTANA PÉREZ
Fight for truth: battling false and misleading information in Southeast Asia and beyond
From cries of “fake news” in the United States and Brazil to the Marcos family’s return to power in the Philippines, the growing role of misinformation and disinformation in the global political landscape is a very real concern. The spread of deliberately deceitful and unintentionally ...
STEW POST
As Laos inches closer to economic default, underage girls face a higher risk of child marriage
Houa* sat on the doorstep of her bamboo house helping her grandmother pluck a chicken. She is not even ten years old, but she is learning how to become a ‘good wife.’ As the Covid pandemic and economic crisis hit the family hard, Houa dropped out ...
BEATRICE SIVIERO
Thailand is using royal defamation laws to silence its people, but it won’t succeed
In mid September, a 25-year-old trans person, Jatuporn “New” Sae-Ung, was sentenced to three years in prison for wearing a Thai traditional dress and performing a mock fashion walk at a political protest in Bangkok back in October 2020. She was charged with royal defamation, ...
SULAKSHANA LAMUBOL
Thailand’s Anti-Torture Bill Could Finally End Refugee Push-Backs
Thailand took a momentous step on 24 August —not only because of a shock decision by the Constitutional Court to suspend Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha from his duties, but also because parliament finally passed a historic anti-torture bill. Once fully enacted, the Bill, formally known as ...
PATRICK PHONGSATHORN
Waste startups and entrepreneurship tackle Cambodia’s growing trash problem
n a remote road in Battambang, Cambodia, 38-year-old Lam Samphors was driving to a community training when he came across a strikingly large pile of trash in the middle of the road. As he hit the brakes and gazed upon the mountain of garbage, Samphors ...
CHEA SAMEANG
Refugees in Thailand allege detention centre abuse
The detention centre was sweltering as Bangkok’s heat oppressed the crowded room. Dark steel bars lined the cells while scores of imprisoned migrants counted down the hours of the day. Crammed together in a tight space, the refugees were in a constantly agitated state. The watchful ...
CALEB QUINLEY
Severance pay remains a struggle for Southeast Asian workers
Garment workers at Thailand’s Brilliant Alliance factory were granted leave, only to learn their employer had shut down when they returned to their worksite in early March 2021. “Everyone was abandoned and never went back to work, there was nothing from the company about compensation,” said ...
JACK BROOK
Cambodia’s small-scale hydropower offers potential and risk
The stiff, rusted grate forming a metal ramp scraped its stone anchor and bent under Lounh Samnang’s weight as he clambered onto the small-scale dam he operates and maintains. Water rushed from the reservoir and gurgled through the dam’s turbine before flowing down O’Porng Morn Kraom, a ...
ANTON L. DELGADO AND NASA DIP
Cambodians face sugar giant in Thai court
Despite being forced from her home in Cambodia without compensation and giving birth while imprisoned for speaking out, Hoy Mai believes she will finally receive justice after more than a decade when she appears in a civil court in Thailand. Mai is expected to testify as ...
JACK BROOK