An emergency summit on Asia's refugee crisis has agreed to work to improve security for people fleeing Bangladesh and Myanmar but it has not revealed how that will be done.
The summit meeting in Bangkok comes after Thailand launched a crackdown on long-established human trafficking syndicates preying on migrants.
Rescued Myanmarese, part of a group of mostly Rohingyas from Myanmar and Bangladesh, in Aceh. Photo: AFP
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said some 25,000 refugees crossed the Bay of Bengal in the first quarter of 2015.
The delegates from 17 nations, including Australia, stopped short of revealing how the flow of migrants can be stopped and Myanmar has refused to be singled out as the main source of the problem.
A four-page summary released after the crisis meeting committed to an intensified search and rescue operation and further talks into the future.