内容摘要：Change has come slowly in Longwa: it took almost a year before soldiers stationed in the village began checking documents, and Longwa residents still move freely after their shifts end in the early afternoon. But people from other villages in Myanmar are afraid to travel beyond Longwa to reach schools or medical care, said B. Phohi Konyak, a former local leader of an organization representing Konyak women.

Change has come slowly in Longwa: it took almost a year before soldiers stationed in the village began checking documents, and Longwa residents still move freely after their shifts end in the early afternoon. But people from other villages in Myanmar are afraid to travel beyond Longwa to reach schools or medical care, said B. Phohi Konyak, a former local leader of an organization representing Konyak women.

In the evening, his father brings his truck around and they load up the days’ haul of paper and plastic from Dogan and others in the area to sell to recycling facilities. After being processed, it will be used in industrial applications or reused as carton and paper.Late at night, thieves sometimes stop them on the streets, asking for money.

“If we refuse, they threaten us,” Dogan says. “We work more than 12 hours, sometimes 17 (a day). If we take a day off, we go hungry.”A man pushes his cart with discarded plastic items and cartons at Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A man pushes his cart with discarded plastic items and cartons at Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Dogan’s cousin, 28-year-old Ergun Dogan, Ergun’s younger brother Mehmet Dogan, 16, and their father, Serdar Dogan are also trash scavengers.The cousin recounts how, if a sack on his cart accidentally touches a passer-by, the person often gets upset and tell him to “get your dirty thing away from me.”

Cumali Bakir, who oversees a recycling depot and buys from collectors like the Dogan cousins, says their jobs should be made official, and that they should be given proper “vests and meal cards.”

Ergin Dogan, 29, pulls his cart with discarded cartons and metal cans at Eminonu commercial distric in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)BEFORE - Migrants arrive to Lajas Blancas, Panama, after trekking across the Darien Gap from Colombia in hopes of reaching the U.S., Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

BEFORE - Migrants arrive to Lajas Blancas, Panama, after trekking across the Darien Gap from Colombia in hopes of reaching the U.S., Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)AFTER - The riverbank where hundreds of migrants used to disembark daily, after crossing the Darien Gap on their journey north to the United States, in Lajas Blancas, Panama, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

AFTER - The riverbank where hundreds of migrants used to disembark daily, after crossing the Darien Gap on their journey north to the United States, in Lajas Blancas, Panama, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)Vulnerable people would trek for days through the rainforest passages and then board narrow wooden boats across rivers. Most would be dropped off at Lajas Blancas, where they would pack into migrant camps filled with families and board buses to cross Panama to continue their journey north.