A wooden fishing boat carrying an estimated 400 Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar is adrift in the Andaman Sea off the island of Koh Lipe.
New York Times journalist Thomas Fuller said the migrants pleaded desperately as he and other journalists approached the boat, crying: "Please help us! I have no water! Please give me water!"
The migrants have been kept alive by food and water passed to them from fishing boats.
Reports say they have been forced to drink their own urine in a bid to survive.
The passengers said they had been onboard the boat for three months. They said 10 passengers who died on the voyage had been thrown overboard.
Thai authorities refused to grant permission for the boat to land. Regional police official Major General Puttichat Akhachan told Reuters: "We declined them entry to the country but we gave them food and water to adhere to our human rights obligations."
Somchai Na Bangchang, a rear admiral in the Royal Thai Navy, said the migrants did not want to land in Thailand but instead wanted to go to Malaysia or Indonesia.
Thousands of migrants have been abandoned at sea by smugglers following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking.
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http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/please-give-us-water-the-desperate-cries-of-rohingya-and-bangladeshi/
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