DHAKA: Around 800 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh were brought ashore to the east coast of Aceh on Indonesia's island of Sumatra on Friday, a search and rescue official said.

"The latest information we have is about 794 people were found in the middle of the sea and brought ashore by fishermen at 5 a. m.," Khairul Nova, the official in the town of Langsa in Aceh, told by telephone.

"They are now in a warehouse by the port as a temporary arrangement," Nova added, reports the Jerusalem Post.

Earlier on Sunday, a boat carrying nearly 600 migrants landed in Indonesia.

Thousands of migrants are stranded on similar boats in Southeast Asian seas as governments in the region seek to prevent them from landing, despite a request by the United Nations to rescue them.

BDST: 1243 HRS, MAY 15, 2015
RS

** Malaysia turns away boats with 800 migrants