Jakarta - The Indonesian Navy on Tuesday rescued 198 boat people from Myanmar drifting off the coast of the north-western province of Aceh, an official said.

They were the second batch of boat people belonging to Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority to be picked up off Indonesia after 193 people were rescued early last month off Sabang island on the northern tip of Aceh.

The rescues came as the Rohingya flee impoverished, military-run Myanmar and Thailand has been accused of mistreating the migrants and casting them adrift at sea.

The Rohingya were found drifting on a small, engineless wooden boat off East Aceh district before dawn Tuesday after 21 days at sea, deputy district chief Nasruddin Abubakar said.

He said the boat people told officials they had had nothing to eat or drink for seven days and 22 of them had died at sea.

"They said they left Burma because they were victims of persecution," Nasruddin said in a telephone interview, using Myanmar's former official name.

Twenty of the refugees were being treated in hospital for severe dehydration and the remainder were staying at a local government building, he said.

He said the Foreign Ministry had been notified.

The Foreign Ministry said Friday that it would deport the Rohingya boat people rescued last month but was seeking assurances from Myanmar that they would not be harmed when returned.

The refugees have pleaded with the Indonesian government not to send them back, saying they faced persecution and even death in Myanmar.

But ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia had no choice but to deport them because they were considered economic migrants, not political asylum seekers.

The boat people in Aceh were part of 585 asylum seekers who set out on five boats from Myanmar in early December.

They said they were detained and beaten by Thai army officers before being towed out to sea and set adrift with no food and fuel.

Hundreds of the boat people were missing and feared drowned.

Myanmar's ruling junta has declared the Muslim Rohingyas stateless, considering them Bangladeshis and denying them citizenship although they have lived in Myanmar's Arakan state for at least two centuries.

There are an estimated 250,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh and an estimated 20,000 working illegally in Thailand.

Thailand's newly appointed government under Prime Minster Abhisit Vejjajiva has promised to investigate allegations that the Thai army had mistreated the boat people.

Lacking citizenship and job opportunities, the Rohingyas have migrated to Malaysia and Indonesia looking for work, receiving little welcome.

Despite their downtrodden status in the region, few Western countries have expressed interest in opening their doors to a Rohingya resettlement programme. (dpa)