Foreign ministers from Thailand,
Malaysia and Indonesia are due to hold an emergency meeting in Kuala
Lumpur to discuss the region's migrant crisis.
Thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims, fleeing persecution in Myanmar, have spent weeks at sea.
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have refused to let them come ashore.
Speaking ahead of the talks, Indonesia's foreign minister said the migrant issue was "not a problem of one or two countries".
"It happens in other places as well, it is actually an international issue," said Retno Marsudi.
She
urged more co-operation with the United Nations and other international
organisations to resettle the thousands of migrants who had abandoned
the boats and made it to shore.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said a "comprehensive
regional response" was needed and has called on the three countries to
launch search and rescue operations and put in place procedures for
assessing any refugee claims.
Towed away
Ms
Marsudi will meet her counterparts Anifah Aman from Malaysia and
Thailand's Tanasak Patimapragorn in the Malaysian capital to debate the
issues.
The ministers face growing international pressure to
relent, but also domestic public opinion, which is generally hostile to
the migrants, according to the BBC's East Asia editor Jill McGivering.
Rohingya migrants have been fleeing Myanmar for decades via Thailand,
but the crisis has intensified because of a crackdown on people
smugglers by the Thai authorities.
It has led to traffickers using sea routes, and often abandoning migrants on boats.
Officials
from neighbouring countries have supplied some of the migrants,
drifting in the Andaman Sea, with food and water, but have then towed
them out of their own territory.
Malaysia has already hosted more
than 45,000 Rohingyas over the years, according to the UN, but now says
it cannot accept any more.
The UNHCR said it was deeply concerned
boats were being pushed away and has offered to send Malaysia medical
and other aid, as well as help with processing the migrants.
Myanmar has acknowledged the international "concerns", but denied it was solely to blame.
It has yet to say if it will attend any meetings on the issue. Why has this crisis erupted?
Rohingya Muslims mainly live in
Myanmar - largely in Rakhine state - where they are not considered
citizens and have faced decades of persecution.
Rights groups say migrants feel they
have "no choice" but to leave, paying people-smugglers to help them. The
UN estimates more than 120,000 Rohingyas have fled in the past three
years.
Traffickers usually take the migrants
by sea to Thailand then overland to Malaysia, often holding them hostage
until their relatives pay ransoms.
But Thailand recently began cracking
down on the migrant routes, meaning traffickers are using sea routes
instead, often abandoning their passengers en route.
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