News stories by Marwaan Macan-Markar*

Veena Panudej makes a living in the night like so many other women and men in this quiet eastern corner of Thailand. They work under the light of the stars in rubber estates spread beyond this city close to the Cambodian border.

When the global financial crisis hit South-east Asia last year, a reality that had once plagued this region — a spike in child labour — emerged as an obvious concern.