There is nothing to prove refugees adrift in South-East Asian waters are genuine Rohingyas from Myanmar, according to one of the country's highest ranking politicians.

Speaker of Myanmar parliament's upper house, Khin Aung Myint, was in Canberra to help open the new Myanmar Research Centre at the Australian National University (ANU).

Scores of boats are currently believed to be adrift in the Andaman Sea with up to 10,000 people onboard.

Hundreds of the ethnic minority, mainly Muslim refugees, have made it ashore in the past couple of weeks, despite initially being forced back to sea as countries in the region — including Australia — ruled out taking them in.

Speaking through a translator Mr Myint today criticised calls for Myanmar to accept the refugees and argued other countries also refused to welcome them.

"I want to urge everyone, to look at everyone among these boat people, they cannot speak the Myanmar language, and they don't look like Myanmar people," Mr Myint said.

"When you try to investigate, clearly they are not from Myanmar.

"We're also aware that Australia is not accepting them, likewise Myanmar cannot accept them."

Mr Myint explained world leaders did not understand the complexities of Myanmar's history.

"They do not have a clear judgment on Myanmar," he said.

"You need to clearly understand that the Rakhine conflict is a piece of the migrant problem.

"During the British colonisation, Myanmar was a part of India, and a lot of labourers migrated to Myanmar."

It is a position the Rohingyan people do not agree with, including Kyaw Min from the Democracy and Human Rights Party.

"Perhaps the human traffickers had brought some Bengali also from Bangladesh," Mr Min said.

"It has created a sort of complication.

"These people, in my hope should be returned to their native place, and they should be resettled and they should have some opportunities there, so they are not in a circumstance that will compel them to flee their land."

Mr Min spent years in jail, and has since had his citizenship status changed.

"The international community should be aware of this problem, the seriousness of this problem," he said.

"The Rohingyas have two options, one to live in their camps and die there soon, or flee from the camp and face some unpredictable risks in the future."

Mr Min has called on the international community to step up.

"These people have the right to enjoy the protections of international community," he said.

"If the international community do not engage in their obligation, it is the failure of the international community — [the] so-called civilised world."

ANU centre to better understand complex country

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre plans to build on the breadth of knowledge the university has in South-East Asian affairs, according to the School of Asia Pacific Affairs Nicholas Farrelly.

Mr Myint used his speech at ANU to highlight the government's work in pursuing significant transformation to turn Myanmar into a free and fair democracy.

"The transformation that's underway is multi-faceted, it's complex," Dr Farrelly said.

"There's an economic element, there's the political story, there's all sorts of cultural change that's also underway."

But Dr Farrelly said the relationship with the Rohingya minority would continue to be an issue.

"The Myanmar government over many decades now has mistreated this Rohingya population in ways that have forced many people to seek sanctuary elsewhere," he said.

"There are perhaps half a million Rohingya living in relatively insecure conditions across the border in Bangladesh, it's only natural that some will also seek out safe havens across the Andaman Sea.

"It's difficult for many Myanmar powerbrokers to directly broach aspects of this particular issue, within Myanmar, the topic of the Rohingya is incredibly sensitive, indeed explosively so.

"The history of interaction between the majority and the minorities has been a tortured one, perhaps a million people have been killed in Myanmar's civil wars since Independence in 1948."