( CNN ) -- He does n't know how old he is , but he thinks he 's 7 . His name is Khin Zaw Lin . He 's lived in a garbage dump virtually his entire life . Khin Zaw Lin lives in a Thai garbage dump with only his adopted mother and his toy gun to protect him . I find Lin walking in a festering landscape of rotting food , plastic bags and junk at the Mae Sot garbage dump in Thailand near the Thai-Myanmar border . His parents are long gone . His home is a makeshift shelter made from salvaged bags , cloth and wood . Lin is one of about 300 refugees in the dump who survive on other people 's trash . Many are children . Some are women with babies . Their daily routine follows the same pattern : They mill about the dump , waiting for the next truck to arrive , hoping for enough discarded food to get them through the day . Lin pokes through the rubbish with a machete . He says he collects bottles and plastic for three cents a sack . He shows me his feet , which were filthy and ribbed with cuts . He tells me through an interpreter that he ca n't afford shoes . He walks barefoot through the treacherous landscape . My assistant told me about Lin 's home while he was researching another story on the border area in Myanmar , the country once known as Burma . I found it hard to believe at first , but I was curious . I persuaded my camera crew to make the six-hour drive from Bangkok . When we arrive at the dump , people are afraid of us . We 'd been told there are orphans living at the dump , but people are wary . They think we are there to take away the orphans or ask for bribes . I tell them I want to help , and I am eventually directed to Lin . He greets me with a soft , hoarse voice . But he 's all energy and purpose when he resumes plucking bottles from the mountain of trash . A recycling firm offers the closest thing to steady employment for Lin and his family . It buys what bottles and plastics Lin and others salvage . Lin gives the money to his adopted mother . She tells me that Lin 's biological mother gave him to her in Myanmar when he was a baby because she could n't cope with the responsibility . Life under the military junta in Myanmar can be brutal . The country 's economy is collapsing , and torture and rape under the country 's military regime is commonplace . Lin 's new mother decided to flee to Thailand in search of a better life . She found a garbage dump instead . Still , she says scavenging for food in the dump is actually an improvement on her previous life . As I listen to Lin 's story , a question keeps going through my mind : How can a 7-year-old spend his entire childhood in this squalor ? Watch as Lin and others root through the dump » . Perhaps it 's because Lin is invisible -- he does n't have a passport or papers . He is part of special group of refugees from Myanmar that do n't officially exist . The United Nations established refugee camps in Thailand for those who flee Myanmar , but the camps are reserved only for victims of political persecution . Refugees fear if they enter a refugee camp , they 'll be classified as migrant workers and deported . As a result , these refugees are trapped in the garbage dump -- not enough money to go elsewhere and no prospects back home . I thought I had become accustomed to the grinding poverty I had encountered in parts of Asia . I 've met my fair share of children who are denied the luxury of hope . But Lin 's story angers me . I feel close to losing all objectivity . Near the end of my meeting with Lin , I ask his adopted mother if she , and Lin , would ever escape the rubbish dump . Her answer is as hard as the world she and Lin inhabit . `` Never . '' E-mail to a friend .
Orphan boy eats discarded food to survive . Biological mother gave him away . Boy part of refugee community in Thai garbage dump .