The US, Canada and others have offered to help resettle the migrants.

Malaysia and Indonesia will soon be dealing with an influx of migrants, as search and rescue operations get under way.

About 7,000 migrants - Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslims - are stranded in the Andaman Sea. Governments in the region were unwilling to bring them ashore until now, afraid of encouraging more to arrive at a later date.

Under international pressure Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to give them temporary shelter. The US and others have offered to help resettle the migrants.

But how do ordinary people in countries around the region see the Rohingya, and the current crisis? BBC correspondents have been finding out.

seeing the suffering of the migrants who had been stranded at sea, the majority in Malaysia feel it was the right decision to offer them temporary shelter. 

One local newspaper, The Malaysia Star says: "We've accepted refugees from Bosnia and Vietnam, why not Rohingya?" 

But there is also fear that this decision will open the floodgates to more migrants in the future. 

Malaysia has long been the preferred destination for many of the Rohingya as the country is predominantly Muslim. It has already accepted about 45,000 of them over the years. 

On Twitter, some expressed disappointment that their minister did not urge Myanmar, also known as Burma, to end the persecution of the minority group. 

Distressing images of emaciated and desperate Rohingya on boats have brought Myanmar's crisis to Australia's newspapers and TV news bulletins. 

But Prime Minister Tony Abbott is not swayed, and says Australia will not resettle any of those who have fled. He said if it did, it would only encourage more waves of migrants. 

"If we do the slightest thing to encourage people to get on boats this problem will get worse, not better," Mr Abbott said emphatically. 

Since a comprehensive election victory in September 2013, the Abbott government has been using the navy to turn or tow asylum seeker boats away from Australian waters. What was a steady flow of unauthorised arrivals is now barely a trickle. 

Critics, though, have accused the Prime Minister of being callous.

Mariko Oi, BBC News, Kuala Lumpur