The Moei river separates military-ruled Burma from its far more prosperous neighbour Thailand. A steady flow of migrants, traders and Burmese dissidents cross the porous border to Mae Sot, a Thai town on the other side of the river in search of new opportunities.

Amongst them are labourers seeking employment in garment factories where they are usually paid far less than the Thai legal minimum wage and – more recently – political activists such as Venerable Kovida, a dissident monk, who fled Thailand after the recent military crackdown on political protests.