By Josh Carroll
YANGON, Myanmar
Myanmar's navy appears to be blaming Thailand for the plight of 727 "Bengali" boat people found crammed on a fishing trawler in its waters, saying Sunday that its neighbor had refused them permission to land.
Thailand's Nation newspaper reported Myanmar's Eleven Media as saying that on arrival in Thailand the migrants had said that they failed to meet their contact and tried to avoid the authorities, but were instead sent back to sea and told to return to Bangladesh where they were from.
Many of the migrants are attempting to travel to Malaysia on trafficking vessels, the smugglers using Thailand as a transit stop where they frequently imprisoned the migrants for ransom.
"Thailand put these people on boats and sent them out of Thai waters," the report quoted an unnamed naval officer as saying.
"It's been 10 days since they left Thailand, according to the migrants. The navy is now sending them to the Haigyi island naval port. After interrogating them, we will make detailed plans about what to do next," he added.
The Nation said that police in Myanmar's Pyapon Township had confirmed the migrants' detention.
The discovery was made Friday as Myanmar took part in a regional meet in Bangkok on the Southeast Asian boat people crisis, which started when Thailand began clamping down on people smuggling rings within its borders.
Thailand has since said it will help, but not harbor, the thousands of boat people -- Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis -- who remain at sea in the Andaman looking to land on Southeast Asian shores.
Malaysia and Indonesia, meanwhile, have said that they will take them in for one year, ascertain which are asylum seekers and which are economic migrants, and then the international community will find homes for them.
Myanmar country's Ministry of Information said in a Facebook post Friday that the "608 Bengali men, 74 women and 45 children" would now be towed to an island.
Photographs accompanying the statement showed men with bare chests packed tightly in rows on the stern of the ship.
Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya Muslims as Rohingya, preferring to use the term "Bengali" which suggests that they are from Bangladesh across its western border.
Many Rohingya have for years been fleeing Myanmar by sea to escape persecution from both the authorities and extremist Buddhists.
