Poverty-stricken and loathed at home, Myanmar's Rohingya are one of the world's most persecuted minorities -- yet their dire situation has long been ignored in Southeast Asia. 

The Muslim community's friendless status angers activists, who say that regional negligence can now be counted in lives lost as a wave of migrants find themselves in desperate straits at sea.

Malaysia joined Indonesia on Wednesday in vowing to turn back vessels bearing a wave of migrants, drawing warnings that the hardline policy could be a death sentence for boatloads of people at risk of starvation and disease.

As the UN's refugee agency accused regional authorities of playing with lives, more grim accounts emerged from among hundreds of migrants who endured weeks of torment at sea before being dumped by human-traffickers.

Bangladesh discovered 116 nationals, some sick from a lack of food, adrift in a fishing trawler in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday after being abandoned by smugglers en route to Malaysia, officials said.

A joint navy and coast guard patrol boat detained the trawler near Bangladesh's southernmost island of St. Martin's close to the border with Myanmar, an official said.

Two Japanese destroyers and one of the Philippines' newest warships began historic naval exercises in the flashpoint South China Sea on Tuesday, showcasing a deepening alliance aimed at countering a rising China.

The day-long war games, the first bilateral naval exercises between the former World War II enemies, took place less than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from a Philippine-claimed shoal now under Chinese control.

Thousands of migrants believed to be stranded at sea without food and water could die unless Southeast Asian governments act urgently to rescue them, migrant groups and the U.N. warned Tuesday.

Underscoring the concern, a migrant organization said a vessel was adrift somewhere near the Thai or Malaysian coast with around 350 people -- including women and children -- but no food or water, while Thailand called a regional summit on the issue.

Nearly 2,000 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been rescued or swum to shore in Malaysia and Indonesia, authorities said Monday, warning that still more desperate migrants could be in peril at sea.

The spate of arrivals comes as Thailand, a key stop on a Southeast Asian people-smuggling route, cracks down following the discovery of mass graves that has laid bare the extent of the thriving trade.

Thailand's junta chief Friday called for Malaysia and Myanmar's help in stamping out the region's thriving human trafficking trade following the discovery of remains from dozens of migrants.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said he had asked his foreign ministry to seek a three-way meeting with counterparts from the neighboring countries before the end of May.

Malaysia's ruling coalition prevailed in a parliamentary by-election but by a reduced margin, one of two votes this week viewed as tests of support for embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition held onto the seat in a rural area of the eastern state of Pahang, considered a stronghold, with 61 percent of the vote, according to figures cited late Tuesday by state-run Bernama news agency.

Indonesia will stop sending new domestic workers to 21 Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon, reports said Tuesday, after the recent execution of two Indonesian women in Saudi Arabia angered Jakarta.

Other countries affected by the ban are Saudi Arabia -- a major destination for Indonesian maids -- United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Iran and Egypt.

Six men, including an Indonesian suspected to be an arms expert, were charged on Thursday for allegedly conspiring to plot terror attacks in Malaysia.

The men, aged between 25 and 48, were charged with being "party to a conspiracy to promote terror in Malaysia", according to court documents obtained by AFP.