Malaysia coast guard vows to turn back migrant boats

Malaysia will turn away boats bearing desperate migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh unless they are in imminent danger of sinking, a top coast guard official said Wednesday.

"The policy has always been to escort them out of Malaysian waters after giving them the necessary provisions," First Admiral Tan Kok Kwee of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told AFP on the resort island of Langkawi.

More than 1,000 exhausted and starving migrants have abandoned people-smuggling boats and swum to Langkawi in recent days, with hundreds of others also reaching nearby Indonesia.

Indonesia's navy said Tuesday it had turned away a vessel packed with hundreds of migrants.

Southeast Asia is grappling with a migrant crisis after a Thai crackdown on a thriving people-smuggling trade severely disrupted trafficking routes, leaving overcrowded vessels with nowhere to go and passengers at risk of starvation and disease.