Hundreds of migrants from Myanmar gave National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi a thunderous welcome to Thailand yesterday on her first visit since her party swept to election victory in Myanmar in November, last year.
Thailand is home to between 2 and 3 million migrant workers from Myanmar, many of whom perform back-breaking jobs most Thais are unwilling to do. Her visit has prompted renewed calls for better protection of migrant workers, many of whom are undocumented and whom rights groups say are vulnerable to abuse.
“We hope she will pressure the Thai government to have sympathy for us,” said Ma Kout Shwe, a steel-factory worker from Myanmar.
Photo: Reuters
Aung San Suu Kyi, now Burmese Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will today sign a memorandum of understanding to help Myanmar migrants work legally in Thailand, according to a Thai government document distributed before the visit.
Many of those gathered at the Talay Thai market in Mahachai, a fishing port just west of Bangkok, wore T-shirts bearing the words: “We love Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Many migrants in Mahachai work on fishing boats or in seafood processing plants. The industry’s reputation has been tarnished by instances of human trafficking, forced labor and violence.
The visit “fills me with hope,” Burmese migrant Thon Barami said at the scruffy port which is the seat of Thailand’s huge seafood industry and home to more than 100,000 low-paid Burmese laborers.
“We have problems here in Thailand. She might help us with labor rights ... people all around the world will listen to her,” she added.
Yesterday’s visit is Aung San Suu Kyi’s second official trip abroad since the NLD government took office on March 30.
She is making the three-day visit in her official capacity as state counselor, a position created for her, and as foreign minister.
It is the first meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the Thai military government that seized power in a bloodless coup in May 2014.
Her government has seeded hopes for a new era of prosperity that could eventually convince the army of low-paid Burmese laborers in Thailand to return home.
The junta has been jittery over Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit. A news conference in Bangkok on the plight of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya minority ended abruptly yesterday after Thai authorities put pressure on the human rights groups that organized it.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized overseas, and by some in Myanmar, for saying little about the abuses faced by the Rohingya, who live in apartheid-like conditions and are seen by many Burmese Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
It is unclear if she will make a scheduled trip to a refugee camp in Ratchaburi Province tomorrow.
It is one of nearly a dozen camps in Thailand holding more than 100,000 refugees who have fled conflict in Myanmar.
Many are ethnic Karen displaced by war with the Burmese army. The violence abated following a 2012 ceasefire, but conflict with other ethnic rebel groups continues.
Thailand, which does not accept refugees, wants to repatriate camp residents — some of whom have been born on Thai soil, but are barred from citizenship.
Aung San Suu Kyi is also not scheduled to visit any of the Thai centers holding hundreds of Rohingya boat migrants.
Additional reporting by AFP
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