An illegal immigrant boy from Myanmar collects plastic

An illegal immigrant boy from Myanmar collects plastic at a rubbish dump site near Mae Sot December 22, 2009. Despite terrible living conditions and the fear of being sent back to their country, several hundred illegal immigrants from Myanmar live and earn an average of $1 per day collecting plastic at the rubbish dump near the border town of Mae Sot. Myanmar's long-standing political crisis has forced millions of people to cross the border for a better and safer life. The first refugees arrived and set up camps in the Myanmar-Thailand border in 1984. Now, there are over 140,000 refugees in nine official camps along Thailand's western border. Many more are expected to be in unofficial settlements.
Credit: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Pictures of the Decade : A would-be immigrant crawls on a beach

A would-be immigrant crawls on a beach after his arrival in Fuerteventura, Spain. With a group of plump tourists chatting away nearby, a would-be immigrant off a makeshift boat from Africa drags himself up a beach on Spain's Canary Island. As populations have increased over the past decade so has the lucrative business of people smuggling and trafficking in human beings which is possibly the fastest growing of a group of new transnational crimes. Developments in information technology and communication has aided people-smugglers who now have access to highly sophisticated navigation equipment and state-of-the-art digitally produced false documentation. Taken on May 5, 2006 by Juan Medina