The Indonesian navy prevented a suspected migrant boat from entering the country's waters at the weekend after the arrival of hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshis and has stepped up patrols in the area, the military said Monday.

Nearly 3,000 migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand over the past week, around half of whom have arrived in Indonesia's western province of Aceh. 

Malaysia's foreign minister urged Myanmar on Sunday to hold talks on stemming a flood of boat-people to Southeast Asia, warning it may otherwise call for an emergency meeting on the crisis.

"If necessary, we will call for an emergency meeting," Foreign Minister Anifah Aman was quoted as saying by the state-run Bernama news agency. 

Malaysia's prime minister said on Saturday he would seek help from Myanmar to address the unfolding "humanitarian catastrophe" involving a wave of boatpeople flooding to Southeast Asia, thousands of whom are ethnic Rohingya fleeing oppression in the mainly Buddhist country.

Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have come under increasing pressure to rescue a wave of starving and helpless Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants after triggering outrage by turning them back out to sea with scarce food and nowhere to go.

Around $1,100 should have secured passage for each of the Rohingya migrants who were found adrift in the Andaman Sea -- victims of a dark trade in humans that pivots around smuggling kingpins in Thailand's south.

From the heaving bow of a wooden boat packed with emaciated and bedraggled fellow Rohingya, Mohammad Salim, 30, said his brother had the 4,000 Malaysian ringgit ($1,120) demanded by the brokers -- if he made it.

Myanmar extended a state of emergency in a conflict wracked northern region near China Friday, with the defense minister arguing that continued military control of the area was necessary to ensure "peaceful relations" across the border.

Fighting between government troops and ethnic Chinese rebel fighters has raged in the Kokang region of Shan state since early February, raising fears over the country's peace process and causing tens of thousands of people to flee, many into China.

A boat packed with desperate Rohingya left Thai waters early Friday bound for Indonesia, authorities said, in line with the kingdom's policy of preventing the migrants from settling in Thailand.

Thai officials gave food and water to hundreds of emaciated Rohingya who have been at sea on the overcrowded boat for weeks. In recent days they were abandoned by their traffickers, who also disabled the engine before fleeing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Southeast Asian countries not to turn back migrants and refugees fleeing on boats, telling them that rescue at sea was an international obligation.

Malaysia and Indonesia have vowed to bar ships carrying migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, leaving them stranded in the Andaman Sea and Straits of Malacca.

Malaysia turned away two vessels carrying hundreds of migrants while one boat turned up Thursday in Thai waters, as critics accused Southeast Asian governments of playing a game of "human ping pong" with the lives of desperate boatpeople.

Malaysia and Indonesia have vowed to bar ships bearing desperate migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh who are flooding into Southeast Asia, triggering warnings that the hardline approach could endanger thousands at sea.

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.