Myanmar News Articles: Aust gives $6m emergency aid to Myanmar

Australia has donated an extra $6 million in emergency aid to provide Myanmar's internally-displaced ethnic Rohingya minority with food and shelter.

The decision comes as the asylum-seeker boat crisis in South-East Asian waters escalates.

A third of the cash will go to the United Nation's refugee arm to provide shelter for displaced people in Rakhine and Kachin states while $3 million has been allocated to the World Food Program and $1 million to an emergency response fund.

The latest contribution follows $10.7 million in emergency aid announced last week.

An estimated 3000 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi economic migrants have landed in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand during the past week after a Thai crackdown prompted some people smugglers to abandon their human cargo.

The UN estimates 4000 people are still stranded at sea.

The Rohingya Muslims are trying to escape apartheid-like restrictions on movement and education and healthcare access. Foreign ministers from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are meeting near Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday for crisis talks.

A separate regional emergency meeting to address "root causes" of the migration flow is scheduled in Bangkok for next week.

Fifteen countries have been asked to attend, but it's not clear whether Myanmar will show up because it takes issue with the term Rohingya being part of the agenda.

Australia will send its ambassador for people smuggling issues Andrew Goledzinowski.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to attend the meeting and show regional leadership.

Labor's immigration spokesman Richard Marles took Mr Abbott to task for his "deeply irresponsible" and "cheap domestic point" on boat turnbacks. "When you have the prime minister peddling a line in relation to turning back boats as if every circumstance were the same, it's silly, it's clearly ignorant," he said.