Malaysia, Indonesia to 'provide shelter' for boatpeople

Malaysia and Indonesia on Wednesday offered to provide "temporary shelter" to thousands of migrants stranded at sea, provided that they could be resettled or repatriated within a year.

"Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those 7,000 irregular migrants still at sea," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and his counterpart Retno Marsudi of Indonesia said in a joint statement after talks on the issue.

"We also agreed to offer them temporary shelter provided that the resettlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community."