Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said that Indonesian officials have informed the Australian Government that most of the migrants stranded on the seas are illegal labourers from Bangladesh and not oppressed Muslim Rohingyas.
According to The Daily Star, since the Thai authorities started their crackdown on human-trafficking in early May, more than 3,500 migrants have been rescued off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.
Bishop said that Indonesia estimated that only 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the thousands still stranded at sea were Rohingyas, which is an impoverished community of Muslims from Myanmar's western Rakhine state.
According to Bishop, Indonesia believes that around 7,000 people (30-40 percent) are Rohingya while the rest are Bangladeshis and not asylum seekers.
Indonesia also stresses that these people are illegal labourers who have been promised jobs in Malaysia, added Bishop.
