Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, who were rescued by the Myanmar navy alongside Bangladesh refugees, are interviewed by immigration officers at a Muslim religious school used as a temporary refugee camp, at the Aletankyaw village in the Maungdaw township, in Rakhine state May 23, 2015. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
YANGON/THEK KAY PYIN, Myanmar (Reuters) - When the Myanmar navy seized a boat used by people smugglers last week, it announced that the 200 people found aboard were mostly Bangladeshis seeking better economic prospects in Southeast Asia.
The message was clear - that very few of the people on the boat, and by extension in the wave of Asian "boatpeople" drifting on the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, were members of Myanmar's Rohingya minority. Myanmar denies discriminating against the Rohingya or that they are fleeing persecution.
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