DHAKA: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) called on Southeast Asian governments on Tuesday to find and rescue thousands of migrants who are believed to be stranded at sea and at risk of death.

Campaigners fear as many as 8,000 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar – among them many from the Rohingya minority – are being held at sea with dwindling supplies after a Thai crackdown on trafficking curbed smuggling routes.

Nearly 2,000 migrants have been rescued or have swum to shore in Malaysia and Indonesia over the last few days. “It needs a regional effort... we don’t have the capacity to search for them, but governments do, they have boats and satellites,” IOM spokesman Joe Lowry told AFP, adding they may be in a “very bad condition or even dead” if not found soon.

“The journeys are long and a long time at sea isn’t good for humans... they need to be found,” he said.

BDST: 1035 HRS, MAY 12, 2015
AKA