Maungdaw, Myanmar--Myanmar officials on Thursday said most of the 700 migrants found adrift on a boat in its waters a week ago identified themselves as Bangladeshi, after they were driven to a camp near the border.
The migrants' fate has been the subject of a diplomatic tussle between Myanmar and Bangladesh since they were found in the Bay of Bengal on May 29.
Neither country has shown willing to accept them despite a warning from the United States that it was watching the situation "very closely".
The packed boat was intercepted last Friday heading south towards Malaysia, which along with Indonesia and Thailand has seen 3,500 people arrive in recent weeks in a migrant crisis that erupted after a crackdown on people-smuggling.
The exodus is made up of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar's western Rakhine State and economic migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Rohingya are a pariah people in Myanmar with the majority denied citizenship, while Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accused desperate economic migrants from her country of being "mentally sick" and tarnishing the country's reputation.
There were 733 passengers crammed on the boat, Myanmar immigration officer Saw Naing said after a count in Rakhine State on Thursday, adding "187 of them are from Myanmar and 546 from Bangladesh."
Myanmar officials have said the group will be further assessed at the camp over the coming days.
Earlier, Foreign Affairs Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said that once verification of their nationalities was complete "we will co-ordinate with their country of origin to take them back."
AFP
