Series
Borderlands: On the edge of humanity
Zach Hope and Kate Geraghty travel to the borderlands near Myanmar, where efforts are under way to rescue thousands of trafficking victims from scam factories.
- Analysis
- Thailand
From the Thai borderlands, I saw the workers coming for their freedom
The nondescript town of Mae Sot on the Myanmar-Thai border has long been a hub of dubious trade. But now something remarkable is happening.
- Zach Hope
Caught in a $60b scam, these workers tried to flee but the soldiers were waiting
It starts with a fake job ad and a free plane ticket to Bangkok. But when you cross into Myanmar’s lawless borderlands, you realise what you’ve walked into.
- Zach Hope and Kate Geraghty
How Elon Musk’s Starlink enables a multibillion-dollar online scam industry
Looking across the Moei River from Thailand, you can see them on the distant Myanmar rooftops – dozens of white rectangles, arranged in clusters. They’re a warning sign for what could be lurking underneath.
- Zach Hope and Kate Geraghty
The fight to free scam slaves in Myanmar
Lured by fake jobs in Thailand, victims are trafficked to Myanmar's notorious scam centres, forced into slavery, and made to commit online fraud under duress.
- Analysis
Sex drops and whiskey packets: The bizarre market built around a barbed wire fence
An international border separates the vendors from customers, while behind it people live in the middle of a river, knowing their houses will soon be washed away.
- Zach Hope
The teenage chef, the rice farmer – and the day that changed their lives forever
Ko Khant and Min Aung once lived in vastly different worlds, hundreds of kilometres apart. Then came February 1, 2021.
- Zach Hope and Kate Geraghty
How a river saved a village when war reached its doorstep
The day the fighting neared their village, the residents of Pu Lu Palaw made for the river. Thai soldiers helped them cross. But peace was only fleeting.
- Kate Geraghty and Zach Hope
Other series
Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2026
This year’s laugh fest has kicked off, with more than 2000 performers stepping up to the mic. Here, our writers take a closer look
- 10 stories
Hate of origin: Inside football’s most intense rivalry
Essendon and Hawthorn have hated each other for more than 40 years, from some old-fashioned thuggery and a fake drug scandal in the mid-80s to last year’s failed bid by the Hawks to poach the Bombers’ captain.
- 5 stories