Myanmar adopts policy to settle boat people crisis

Yangon: Myanmar's House of Nationalities (upper house) on Tuesday passed a motion to adopt a decisive policy for detained Bangladeshi boat people.

"On humanitarian grounds, investigating the origin of the boat people and giving them temporary shelter is in the interest of Myanmar people and the Myanmar government has adopted a policy to settle the boat people crisis," Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs U. Thant Kyaw said.

Myanmar authorities on Monday deported 150 boat people to Bangladesh, after citizenship verification.

The 150 Bengali boat people are among the 208 onboard a fishing trawler rescued on May 21 by Myanmar navy.

Speaker of the upper house, U. Khin Aung Myint has rejected foreign pressure on Myanmar to accept about 30,000 boat people stranded at sea in Malaysia and Indonesia.