More than 8,000 migrants were adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, an IOM official said Tuesday, posing a potential humanitarian crisis for the region's governments, dpa reported. "Thailand has effectively stopped smuggling through its borders," said Jeffrey Labovitz, the International Organization for Migration's chief of mission in Thailand. "As a result we think that there are [more than 8,000] people stranded off shore" in the region, mostly refugees and economic migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, he said. Labovitz said many of the migrants face malnutrition, cramped quarters and contagious diseases.
