UPDATE - Migrant workers gather in Thailand to see Suu Kyi

By Max Constant

BANGKOK (AA) - A large deployment of police and military officers failed to stop thousands of Myanmar migrant workers breaking through security gates in a seafood market close to the Thai capital Thursday - a desperate attempt to get a closer glimpse of the woman many see as having the nation's hopes in her hands.

State counsellor-cum foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi had arrived in Bangkok earlier in the day for a three-day official visit - her first since her party, the National League for Democracy, romped home in the Dec. 8 election last year.

Mu Mu Hsein, a Myanmar housewife born in Dawei in southeastern Myanmar and currently living in the city of Mahachai located around 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Bangkok, told Anadolu Agency that after waiting for seven hours "words could not express how happy she felt".

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrant workers are employed in Mahachai in seafood processing factories,

“I cannot go close to her, but still I am just so happy to see her coming,” she tearfully added, minutes before migrants shouting “Daw Suu (Mother Suu)", pushed aside security gates and converged on a convoy driving Suu Kyi to a closed part of the market where she was due to a deliver a speech to a chosen few.

Suu Kyi’s visit to Thailand is a triumph for the million-strong Myanmar migrant worker community in Thailand. While President Htin Kyaw - Suu Kyi's former driver - is purely considered the government's figurehead, Suu Kyi is the de facto head of State.

“The conditions are very different from her first visit four years ago,” migrant rights activists Andy Hall underlined to Anadolu Agency.

Hall was involved in organizing Suu Kyi's visit to Mahachai in 2012 - when she also spoke at the World Economic Forum in Bangkok - soon after she was elected MP.

“There is a heavy Thai state security deployment. It is a bit disappointing, but I can understand that there are security concerns."

Earlier in the day, other migrant workers, however, had been less than enthusiastic about Suu Kyi.

A press conference organized by the Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons (CRSP), a Thailand-based NGO focusing on the plight of Myanmar's long-suffering Muslim Rohingya, was cancelled by the Thai police, apparently out of concern that the event could disturb Suu Kyi’s visit.

“I am banned to speak on Rohingya rights,” a Rohingya man involved in organizing the event told Anadolu Agency.

After speaking, the man - who did not wish to be identified out of fears for his security - placed scotch-tape across his mouth as a symbol of his lack of freedom of expression.

In a statement distributed to reporters, the CRSP said it wanted to recommend to Suu Kyi several measures to help diminish the pressure on Rohingya.

These included “reinstating nationality to Rohingya who used to be bestowed with the Myanmar nationality before the 1982 law” and to “stop discriminating against ethnic minorities in Myanmar”.

Suu Kyi has often been criticized by international human rights organizations for what they see as indifference to the ethnic minority's plight.

She recently called for people to stop using the word “Rohingya” to refer to the the Muslims of western Myanmar, and instead use "Muslim Community in Rakhine State."

With nationalists in the country referring to Rohingya as “Bengali” - a name which implies that they are interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh - the new term is seen by analysts as an attempt to strike a balance.

“I think these people have the right to name themselves as 'Rohingya'," Angkhana Neelapaijitr, a member of the Thai national human rights commission involved in the organization of the press conference told Anadolu Agency.

"They have the right to birth registration and nationality. They must have the right to have access to education and the right to work," she added.

“I think Mrs. Aung Suu Kyi should recognize this.”

Thousands of Myanmar migrant workers were left in the rain Thursday as Thailand's military government strictly controlled access to Aung San Suu Kyi during the first day of her visit as Myanmar state counselor to the country.

Migrant workers at Mahatchai Port in Samut Sakhon had made their way to the venue hoping to meet their hero, but Thailand's junta only allowed several hundred pre-approved workers into the tightly controlled event.

Police put the number of those gathered outside as around 5,000, many of whom continued to sing and dance in the downpour hoping to catch a glimpse of Suu Kyi as she was escorted in by Thai police.

Myanmar's state counselor-cum foreign minister had been due to hear the concerns of the migrant workers working in Thailand, with regard to working conditions and legal representation.

"Only pre-approved workers from nearby factories were let in," said Andy Hall of the Migrant Workers Right Network.

For years, Thailand has been a primary destination for Myanmar migrant laborers, many of whom work in the seafood industry.

Suu Kyi is due to meet with Thai Premier Prayuth Chan-ocha on Friday to discuss their rights before flying back to Myanmar on Saturday.