News Desk :The Myanmar government announced on Friday that its navy has seized yet another boat packed with 727 people off the country’s southern coast.A week before the government made a similar claim of a Friday boat carrying 200 Bangladeshi migrants.The nationality of the people on the boat was unclear. Myanmar’s Ministry of Information described them as “Bengalis”. They use the term “Bengalis” to describe the country’s persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority as well as immigrants from Bangladesh.More than 3,000 migrants have landed in Indonesia and Malaysia since Thailand launched a crackdown on human trafficking gangs this month. About 2,600 are believed to be still adrift.”Myanmar navy is now transporting the boat to its base on Haingye Island,” said Tun Kyaw Kyaw, the Deputy Director General of the Ayeyarwady Division government, responsible for the area region where navy base is located. The island is also on Myanmar’s southern coast, close to the place where the boat was seized. “After sending the people to the island, we will investigate them,” said Tun Kyaw Kyaw, adding that the examination was necessary to determine their identity.Pictures posted on the Ministry of Information’s Facebook page showed scores of men huddling shoulder-to-shoulder under the sun on the front deck, while uniformed officials – one of them carrying a rifle – stood above. Women could be seen crammed together in the boat’s cabins.The navy found the boat 30 nautical miles off Myanmar’s southern coast in the Andaman Sea. The government said there were 608 men, 74 women and 45 children on board.
