More than 600 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar stranded at sea have landed in Indonesia's Aceh province, after being rescued by local fishing boats. Thousands of migrants, mainly from the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, are thought to be at sea after being abandoned by people
smugglers.About 2,000 of them came ashore in Aceh earlier this week and are being given medical assistance and food. Continue..
Since then, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been turning boats away.
Officials said 210 of those that landed in Aceh on Friday were from Myanmar and 395 from Bangladesh. Medical officials told BBC Indonesian service that eight on board were critically ill.
"According to initial information we got from them, they were pushed away by the Malaysian navy to the border of Indonesian waters," Sunarya, police chief in the city of Langsa where the migrants arrived, told AFP news agency.
He said their boat started sinking after reaching Indonesian territory but local fishermen ferried them to shore, adding they arrived at 5:00 am (22:00 GMT Thursday).
On Friday, a boat carrying about 300 Rohingya Muslims that was stranded off the southern coast of Thailand for a week was sent out of Thai waters.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, who went to the boat near Koh Lipe on Thursday, says those on board had contacted their families to say armed uniformed men had boarded overnight. They repaired the broken engine, gave them food and moved the boat south.
Thai officials said the migrants did not want to go to shore but wanted to continue to Malaysia. The heavily packed boat was abandoned by people smugglers who also disabled the engine. The migrants, including women and babies, had told our correspondent they had no food or water and that 10 people had died.
Our correspondent said it was a "desperate sight" as people on board cried out for food and water.
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