By Joshua Carroll
YANGON, Myanmar
Hundreds of migrants who were found by Myanmar’s navy last week after being abandoned at sea by people smugglers have been brought to shore in Rakhine state.
Officials claim the migrants -- who are being kept near the Bangladeshi border -- are from Bangladesh, but outsiders have so far been prevented from verifying that.
Men in the group were separated from the women and children, the Myanmar Times reported.
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine were left stranded at sea alongside Bangladeshi migrants following a crackdown on people smuggling gangs in recent weeks. Myanmar, however, does not recognize the term Rohingya, and claims the group are interlopers from Bangladesh.
"Myanmar is deploying all diplomatic means with the country concerned… to send the boat people back to their place of origin," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry published in state media Thursday.
"Most of them are from Bangladesh, our government is treating them well," Shwe Maung, a central committee member from the Rakhine National Party, told Anadolu Agency on Thursday. "These boat people have to be sent away."
A spokesperson from the U.S. Embassy in Yangon said: "We are strongly urging authorities to ensure the full protection and well-being of the migrants and to allow for immediate humanitarian access and assistance, including urgent medical care and adequate accommodation."
At least 50 people are thought to have died on the voyage, the Myanmar Times reported.
Myanmar said it will repatriate some of the 208 people found previously on another boat, the Irrawaddy website reported Thursday.
Information Minister Ye Htut told the site that the exact number to be sent back would likely be known Friday after Bangladesh verifies a list provided by Myanmar.
Aid workers said Wednesday they had been told they would be granted access to the latest group of migrants.
Information Minister Ye Htut did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by Anadolu Agency Thursday.
