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 Myanmar's navy discovered the boat with 727 migrants off the
country's southern coast on Friday, but have since been tight-lipped
on the identity of those on board, as well as their fate.
Myo Win, the township administrator of Hainggyi Island, in the
country's south, told Reuters the boat was taken to nearby Leik
Island and the migrants were kept on board while they were provided
with food, water and medical help.
"The boat won't rest at Leik Island tonight... I heard they will be
taken to Sittwe or Maungdaw (in Myanmar's Rakhine State), to then be
sent to Bangladesh."
Officials had on Friday initially labeled those on the boat
"Bengalis" - a term used to refer both to stateless Rohingya from
Rakhine state, as well as Bangladeshis. The government later said
most of those on board are believed to be from Bangladesh.
The government had initially said it would take the migrants to a
navy base on Hainggyi Island, but have since reconsidered their
destination, Commander Soe Min, an assistant to Myanmar's navy
chief, told Reuters.
"The navy may take them somewhere further north, such as Sittwe in
Rakhine State. We're not even sure yet," Soe Min said.
The discovery of the boat on Friday came as Myanmar told a 17-nation
meeting in Thailand that it was not to blame for the crisis that has
seen more than 4,000 desperate Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar and
Bangladeshi migrants take to the seas across Southeast Asia in the
last month.
An additional 2,000 people are believed still adrift after being
abandoned by traffickers following a crackdown in Thailand.
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The boat was found in the Andaman Sea on Friday with 608 women, 74
women and 45 children on board, according to Myanmar's Ministry of
Information.
Those on board told officials they had been at sea in three boats
since March, during which at least 50 migrants died, the ministry
said on its website. The passengers were later abandoned in one boat
by traffickers, it said.
Myanmar has come under heavy criticism for discrimination against
the Rohingya. Most of the 1.1 million Rohingya in Myanmar are
stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions. Almost 140,000 were
displaced in deadly clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine State in 2012.
(Reporting By Hnin Yadana Zaw in Yangon and Soe Zeya Tun and Timothy
Mclaughlin in Hainggyi Island. Writing by Aubrey Belford, Editing by
Rosalind Russell)
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