Myanmar lands 700 migrants, U.S. says Rohingya should be citizens

A Myanmar military officer (top) speaks on the radio from a boat packed with migrants off Leik Island in the Andaman Sea May 31, 2015. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

JAKARTA/MAUNGDAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar brought ashore more than 700 "boat people" it had kept at sea for days aboard a seized vessel, as the United States on Wednesday called on the country to help solve a migrant crisis by recognising the rights of its Muslim Rohingya minority.

U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to make Myanmar's transition to democracy a legacy of his presidency, and Washington is stepping up pressure on the Southeast Asian nation to tackle what it sees as the root causes of an exodus of migrants across the Bay of Bengal that the region has struggled to cope with.