UPDATED: Aung San Suu Kyi visits Thailand

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi arrives in Thailand Thursday for three-day visit. Visits to migrant workers & refugee camps & bilateral talks on Dawei, migrants & refugees on agenda during trip.

UPDATE

Aung San Suu Kyi meets migrant workers at port town outside Bangkok

23/06/2016

Heavy rain could not deter thousands of Myanmar workers from greeting their idol Aung San Suu Kyi at a market in Samut Sakhon on Thursday.

Myanmar citizens working in Mahachai packed Talad Talay Thai in the port town of Samut Sakhon hours before Mrs. Suu Kyi came from Bangkok to meet them.

They braved the heavy rain and chanted  "Me Suu" (Mother Suu) as their icon arrived.

She waved to her compatriots before going inside the meeting hall to talk to their representatives.

The de facto Myanmar leader said in the meeting room that she hoped for better understanding between people of the two countries.

She was welcomed at Suvarnabhumi airport by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.

She will meet Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday with refugees, labour issues and development projects between the two countries on the agenda.

Ms Suu Kyi will deliver the keynote speech at the "Myanmar, Asean and the World" forum at the Foreign Ministry before going to Government House tommorrow.

Her plan to visit the Tham Hin refugee camp in Suan Pheung district in Ratchaburi before wrapping up the visit on Saturday has been cancelled.

(Source: Bangkok Post Breaking News here)

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Aung San Suu Kyi visits Thailand

23/06/2016
AFP News agency

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi arrives Thursday in Thailand for a three-day visit.

She is expected to be garlanded by her adoring compatriots, hundreds of thousands of whom have sought work and sanctuary from war across the border in Thailand.

This will be Mrs Suu Kyi's highest profile overseas visit since her pro- democracy party took power in April, ending nearly half a century of military domination.

Her government has sparked hopes for a new era of prosperity in Myanmar that could eventually convince the army of low-paid Myanmar labourers in Thailand to return home.

[UPDATE: After her arrival on Thursday, there have been many reports of lack of media access and even access by her Myanmar supporters to the venues she has planned to visit (see here as well as here, here & here).]

BILATERAL TALKS & AGREEMENTS

Bilateral talks between Myanmar and Thailand on issues of mutual concern are on the agenda during her visit.

The 71-year-old Mrs. Suu Kyi is officially Myanmar's foreign minister and state counsellor, but also the de facto leader of her country despite a military - era constitution that bars her from the presidency.

A bilateral agreement on Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand is expected to be signed.

The special economic zone (SEZ) of the Myanmar port of Dawei to be connected to Thailand and the rest of Asean by roads and future rail lines, is another likely topic for discussion.  
 
Another issue likely be discussed is the approximately 120,000 refugees (displaced persons) who have sought refuge in Thailand over the years, often fleeing from war in the Karen state of Myanmar that borders Thailand's Tak province and the town of Mae Sot.  

VISIT TO MIGRANT WORKERS IN SAMUT SAKHON

As Myanmar's democracy champion, Mrs Suu Kyi is expected to receive a rock star welcome during a visit to a major fish market where many Myanmar migrant workers work in Samut Sakhon Thursday afternoon.

Mrs Suu Kyi was received by rapturous crowds when she visited the seaport four years ago for the World Economic Forum in Bangkok.

The seat of Thailand's huge seafood industry and home to more than 100,000 Myanmar labourers, Samut Sakhon has been battered by accusations of slavery and other labour abuses.

Seeking to escape poverty at home, some one million registered Myanmar migrant workers form the backbone of Thailand's manual labour workforce.

Many others work illegally, with some estimates putting the total number of Myanmar nationals in Thailand at three million.

Rights groups say migrants are often exploited by unscrupulous officials, human trafficking gangs and employment agencies who charge huge sums to get them poorly paid work.

"They all want to go home, but they are just waiting for the economic situation to improve significantly," explained Andy Hall, a prominent migrant rights activist who works in Thailand.

REFUGEE CAMP VISIT

She is scheduled to travel to a refugee camp in Ratchaburi province on Saturday.

It is one of nearly a dozen camps that line the two nations' border and hold more than 100,000 refugees who have fled conflict in Myanmar.

Many are ethnic Karen who were displaced by a long-running war with Myanmar's army. The violence abated following a 2012 ceasefire, but conflict with other ethnic rebel groups continues.

Thailand officially does not accept refugees or naturalise the displaced in the refugee camps -- although many have been born in Thailand.

[UPDATE: Refugee camp visit reportedly cancelled, see here]

NO ROHINGYA VISITS PLANNED

But Mrs Suu Kyi is not scheduled to visit any of the Thai centres holding some 400 Rohingya, a Muslim group which has fled poverty and persecution in western Myanmar.

She has so far disappointed campaigners who hoped she would throw her moral weight behind the stateless minority group.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special-reports/1017717/suu-kyi-visits-troubled-myanmar-diaspora-in-thailand

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