Aceh, Indonesia (BBN)-Migrants found by the BBC last week as they drifted off the coast of Thailand have been rescued by fishermen from Indonesia’s Aceh province.
Their boat was first spotted on Thursday when it was stranded with a broken engine, but then went missing.
Thousands of Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants are adrift in the Andaman Sea, some without food or water, reports BBC.
Malaysia and Indonesia have now said they will offer migrants immediate temporary shelter.
Foreign ministers from the two countries plus Thailand have been holding emergency talks in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking after the talks ended, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said his country and Indonesia would stop towing the boats into other territories as navies have been doing in recent days.
He said we “need to assist these people” and that “because of the conditions they are experiencing we are willing to take them on to our shores”.
However, he said they would not actively search for migrants, only provide temporary shelter if they came ashore, and under the condition that the international community would help to repatriate or resettle them within a year.
Thailand was not part of the announcement and has not yet commented.
‘TOWED OUT’
On Wednesday, fisherman had rescued more than 400 migrants off the coast of Aceh, in northern Indonesia.
Those who came ashore said they were starving and had been at sea for weeks after being abandoned by people smugglers.
The migrants on board the abandoned ship found last week told activists they had been towed out to sea three times by the Thai and Malaysian navies.
They said had been given food and water by Thai officials.
Rohingya Muslims mainly live in Myanmar – largely in Rakhine state – where they are not considered citizens and have faced decades of persecution.
Rights groups say migrants feel they have “no choice” but to leave, paying people smugglers to help them.
The UN estimates more than 120,000 Rohingyas have fled in the past three years.
Traffickers usually take the migrants by sea to Thailand then overland to Malaysia, often holding them hostage until their relatives pay ransoms.
But Thailand recently began cracking down on the migrant routes, meaning traffickers are using sea routes instead, often abandoning their passengers en route.