Myanmar seizes boat with 727 migrants

Yangon, May 29

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 boat it said carried around 200 Bangladeshi migrants. The nationality of the people on the boat was unclear.

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 immigrants 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 3,000 migrants have landed in Indonesia and Malaysia since Thailand launched a crackdown on human trafficking gangs this month. About 2,600 are believed to be still adrift. — Reuters