United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said that saving the lives of migrants stranded at sea in southeast Asia should be a "top priority" as the region battles with an exodus of boat people fleeing persecution and poverty.
The UN Secretary General said he hoped regional nations would tackle the "root causes" of the current exodus at an upcoming conference in Thailand later this month.
"But when people are drifting on the sea, how we can search and rescue them and provide life saving humanitarian assistance, that is a top priority at this time," he told reporters during a visit to Hanoi.
Elsewhere, at least five Tunisian migrants died when their boat sailing to Italy capsized off the Tunisian coast, officials said.
A navy spokesman said 49 migrants were rescued.
Boat smugglers make use of Tunisia's proximity to the Italian island of Lampedusa to ship migrants there, with Tunisian authorities rescuing dozens of people travelling in unsafe boats in the past few weeks.
A month after nearly 900 migrants drowned in the worst Mediterranean shipwreck in living memory, the flow of people desperate to reach a better life in Europe has accelerated as people smugglers take advantage of calmer seas.
Last week, the European Union agreed a naval mission to target gangs smuggling migrants from Libya.
