BANGKOK: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi arrived Thursday in Thailand where 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.
It is 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 seeded hopes for a new era of prosperity that could eventually convince the army of low-paid Myanmar labourers in Thailand to return home.
The two Southeast Asian neighbours have travelled in starkly different directions in recent years.
While Myanmar's junta has rolled back its chokehold on politics, last year allowing the freest elections in decades, Thailand remains in the grip of a military that seized power in 2014.
As Myanmar's democracy champion, Suu Kyi will receive a rock star welcome during a visit to a fishing village in Samut Sakhon later Thursday.
Hundreds of migrant workers -- most wearing Suu Kyi T-shirts -- gathered at a market in the port town just outside Bangkok, awaiting the arrival of their heroine on Thursday afternoon.
The visit "fills me with hope," Myanmar migrant Thon Barami, 50, told AFP at the scruffy port which is the seat of Thailand's huge seafood industry and home to more than 100,000 low-paid Myanmar labourers.
"We have problems here in Thailand. She might help us with labour rights... people all around the world will listen to her," she added.
The fishing sector has been battered by revelations of the use of slave labour and the widespread exploitation of workers.
The scandals have prompted threats of sanctions by the European Union -- a key market for the multi-billion-dollar Thai seafood industry.
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