1:45 p.m. (0545 GMT)
After weeks of turning away boats with migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to provide them with temporary shelter.
The announcement was made Wednesday by Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman after a meeting with his counterparts from Indonesia and Thailand to address the plight of the migrants.
Most of them are the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and others are Bangladeshis fleeing poverty.
Anifah told reporters that the two countries agreed to give the estimated 7,000 migrants stranded at sea temporary shelter “provided that the resettlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community.”
A few thousand migrants have already made it to shore in Indonesia’s Aceh province and Malaysia’s Langkawi island.
– Eileen Ng, Putrajaya, Malaysia