More than 750 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have arrived in Indonesia after they were rescued by fishing boats when their boat sank off the coast of Aceh province, police say.

Indonesian police said passengers aboard one vessel carrying 712 people recounted how their boat sank off the east coast of Indonesia after earlier being driven away by Malaysia.

"According to initial information we got from them, they were pushed away by the Malaysian navy to the border of Indonesian waters," said Sunarya, police chief in the city of Langsa where the migrants arrived.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have vowed to turn back stricken boats.

However, this did not stop local fishermen from going to the rescue of the latest boatload of forlorn, emaciated migrants — including 61 children — to arrive in the country's waters.

Forty-seven people from another vessel were rescued not far down the coast after the hungry passengers leapt into the water pleading with local fishing boats to help them.

Over the past week, nearly 2,500 have drifted onto the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Desperate scenes in the high seas

Officials described harrowing scenes on the packed boat, with the vessel half under water by the time it was found and children swimming around it.

The migrants had been at sea for two months, authorities said.

The people were taken to a warehouse in Langsa looking exhausted with many wearing just shorts and sarongs.

"They were killing each other, throwing people overboard," Mr Sunarya said.

"Because (the boat) was overcapacity, some people had to go and probably they were defending themselves."

This picture shows a group of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants who survived near-death conditions at sea for almost two months. ( Reuters: Syifa/Antara Foto )

"We haven't had anything to eat for a week, there is nowhere to sleep... my children are sick," said Sajida, 27, a Rohingya who was travelling with her four young children.

Khairul Nova, a search and rescue agency official in Langsa, said the migrants began jumping from the listing boat when they saw the local fishermen approaching, desperate to be rescued.

"Their condition is generally bad, some of them have died at sea," he said, without giving further details. "They were starving at sea, they fought among themselves."

"We were sent out to sea in the middle of the night but we had no food or water and we didn't know where were going or how to get to Malaysia. So we just kept going," Mohammad Husein, a Rohingya muslim who left Myanmar in mid-April, said

Malaysian patrol ships on Wednesday pushed back two migrant vessels off the northern Malaysian islands of Penang and Langkawi, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another boat packed with desperate Rohingya migrants was also believed to be on the way to Indonesia after leaving Thai waters overnight after the kingdom blocked it from entering.

Myanmar to boycott regional meeting

The international community, including the United Nations and the United States, is calling on governments in the region to assist with the arrivals of migrants, which have surged since May 1.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 6 minutes 30 seconds 6 m Saving people 'key right now' as migrants adrift and in limbo on boats off Thailand

However, Malaysia and Indonesia said they will not allow boats full of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh to land.

Myanmar may boycott a regional meeting hosted by Thailand on May 29 aimed at easing the current migrant crisis.

"We are unlikely to attend... we do not accept it if they (Thailand) are inviting us just to ease the pressure they are facing," presidential office director Zaw Htay said.

"The root cause [of the crisis] is increasing human trafficking. The problem of the migrant graves is not a Myanmar problem, it's because of the weakness of human trafficking prevention and the rule of law in Thailand."

Thai fishermen (R) give some supplies to migrants on a boat off the coast of Thailand after it was denied permission to land. ( Reuters )

There are more than a million Rohingya living in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine, many going back generations, but Myanmar insists they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The one-day meeting in Bangkok will include officials from 15 countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, as well as Australia and the United States.

The deadly pattern of migration by sea across the Bay of Bengal will continue unless Myanmar ends discrimination against its Rohingya Muslim minority, the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

"Until the Myanmar government addresses the institutional discrimination against the Rohingya population, including equal access to citizenship, this precarious migration will continue," Mr Zeid said.

AFP/Reuters