Myanmar's navy found 727 people crammed on a fishing boat in its waters, the Ministry of Information said in a Facebook post on Friday, Channel NewsAsia reported.

It added that the would-be "Bengali" migrants had been towed to an island.

"Altogether 727 people - 608 Bengali men, 74 women and 45 children - in a fishing boat have been arrested as a Myanmar Navy ship found them this morning in the delta," the statement said.