News stories by Sutthida Malikaew

'My male employer was a womaniser and he liked to touch me and told me not to tell his wife. I felt so uncomfortable,' says Chompoo, who was just 15 years old when she served — and suffered abuse — as a domestic worker here in the Thai capital.

In New Zealand, where Sujinrat Prachathai enjoys resident status, she is a woman able to append ‘Mrs’ to her name to signify that she is married. Here in Thailand, however, she has to be addressed as ‘Mr’ since she is still considered male even though she underwent a sex-change operation years ago.

Dao, a migrant worker from Burma, is struggling to make a decision that could affect not only her but her family as well. 'There are many things to worry about,' sighed the Shan state native who works in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Dao, a migrant worker from Burma, is struggling to make a decision that could affect not only her but her family as well. 'There are many things to worry about,' sighed the Shan state native who works in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

'Migrant workers are not aliens,' sang a local music band here called Paradon. 'Any kind of work that Thais don’t do, they do it for Thais. No matter how dirty, they do it for Thai. Which job is dangerous, they do. They do it for Thais. Though it is a demeaning job, they do it. They do it for Thais.'

Seventy-one-year old Kham, a woman from Napho Klang, left home early in the morning of Dec. 14 to join a ritual to revitalise the Mekong River, which passes through this part of north-eastern Thailand.