VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis on Sunday called on the international community to help Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants abandoned at sea.
"I continue to follow with profound worry and pain in my heart the stories of many refugees in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea," the pope said in his Pentecost Sunday address.
Francis welcomed the efforts of countries that had agreed to take in the migrants and asked the "international community to offer them humanitarian assistance".
Last week, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to offer temporary shelter to Rohingya migrants but said Bangladeshis, who are considered to be economic migrants rather than fleeing persecution, would be returned.
An estimated 1,700 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have landed in Indonesia and another 1,100 in Malaysia since the crisis began in early May, according to the UN.
