Myanmar's navy seized a boat packed with 727 people off the country's southern coast on Friday, the government said, about a week after it found a similar vessel it said carried around 200 Bangladeshi migrants.
Published : 29 May 2015, 06:41 PM
Most of those on board this boat were also from Bangladesh, a senior official from the president's office, Zaw Htay, told Reuters.
Earlier, Myanmar's Ministry of Information described them as "Bengalis", using the term the government uses to describe the country's persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority as well as people from Bangladesh.
Myanmar insisted it was not to blame for Southeast Asia's latest influx of "boat people" at a regional crisis meeting in Thailand on Friday, as the United States said thousands of vulnerable migrants remained adrift at sea and needed urgent rescue.
More than 4,000 migrants have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh since Thailand launched a crackdown on human trafficking gangs this month.
About 2,000 are believed to be still adrift.