Indonesia has informed Australia that most of the 7,000 migrants stranded at sea in Southeast Asia are illegal workers from Bangladesh, not Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Saturday, report agencies.
Over 3,500 migrants have reached the shores, or rescued off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, since Thailand started a crackdown on human trafficking early May, reports Weekend Australian reported.
According to Indonesia's estimate only about 30-40 per cent of the thousands of people stranded at sea were Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority group in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, according to Agence France-Presse.
"They (Indonesia) believe there are about 7000 people at sea (and) they think about 30-40 per cent are Rohingya, the rest are Bangladeshi; and they are not, in Indonesia's words, asylum-seekers, they are not refugees, they are illegal laborers, they've been promised or are seeking jobs in Malaysia," Bishop told the Weekend Australian, adding: "They said the Rohingya have gone to Bangladesh and have mixed up with the Bangladeshis who are coming to Malaysia in particular for jobs."
Meanwhile, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday that saving the lives of migrants stranded at sea in Southeast Asia should be a "top priority" as the region battles an exodus of boat people fleeing persecution and poverty.
The UN Secretary General said he hoped regional nations would tackle the "root causes" of the current exodus at an upcoming conference in Thailand later this month.
"But when people are drifting on the sea, how we can search and rescue them and provide life saving humanitarian assistance, that is a top priority at this time," he told reporters during a visit to Hanoi.
Ban said he had been in recent discussions with regional leaders in Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar and urged a "very clear addressing of the root causes of this issue, why people are fleeing".
News from Yangon adds a group of migrants recently rescued by Myanmar will be deported to Bangladesh, officials confirmed Saturday.
Southeast Asia is currently battling an exodus of boat people fleeing persecution and poverty, with up to 2,000 vulnerable migrants thought to be stranded in the Bay of Bengal, many at the mercy of ruthless people smugglers.
Most are Muslim Rohingyas from the western Rakhine state in Myanmar, where they are not recognised as citizens and instead referred to as "Bengalis" or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
More than 3,500 migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh since a Thai crackdown on human-trafficking in early May threw the illicit trade into chaos.
Myanmar has faced increasing international pressure to stem the deluge from its shores and deliver urgent humanitarian relief to thousands still trapped at sea.
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