FOUR Malaysian naval vessels began searching for abandoned migrants yesterday as Myanmar agreed to attend a summit on the regional migrant crisis.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered the navy and coast guard to conduct search-and-rescue efforts for boats adrift off the coast.

Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar confirmed that four vessels had been deployed and that three helicopters and three other ships were on standby.

NGOs believe that thousands of Bangladeshi and Myanma migrants have been left adrift in overloaded boats by people traffickers, after almost 2,000 landed in south-east Asian nations in the last fortnight.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand announced earlier this week that they could not accept any more migrants and would turn back any seaworthy boats.

The former two nations have, however, since agreed to offer them temporary shelter.

Around half the migrants are minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution by Buddhist mobs in Myanmar.