In recent days nearly 3,000 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or swum to shore in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Several thousand more are believed to remain trapped on boats at sea with little food or water in a crisis sparked by smugglers abandoning their human cargo that is believed to follow a Thai crackdown on the trade.
The UN refugee agency believes an estimated 25,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis have taken to boats in the first three months of this year — double the number over the same period in 2014.
More than 1,100 migrants have washed ashore in Malaysia over the past week after people-smuggling gangs dumped migrants in shallow waters off the coast of the resort island of langkawi. Some migrants swam to shore after harrowing month-long journeys at sea, crammed in with hundreds of other people and few supplies.
Around 1,500 migrants have been intercepted by Indonesian authorities or plucked from the sea — many in a desperate condition.
On Friday, around 900 Bangladeshis and Rohingya migrants were rescued from the sea after their boat sank.