An estimated 150,000 refugees from Myanmar are currently in camps across the border in Thailand.
Many live in grinding poverty but it is an improvement from life in their home country, even for one community living in a garbage dump.
Families scrape together an income from other people's rubbish, with many children missing school to scavenge alongside the adults.
Al Jazeera's Alea Callan reports from outside the border town of Mae Sot.