Yangon, May 30 (IANS): A Thai boat owner who attempted to traffic over 200 Bangladeshis on his vessel over the past week was detained in Myanmar's Yangon, a media report said on Saturday.

The Myanmar navy, during regular patrolling in the country's territorial waters on May 21 intercepted two suspected fishing trawlers off the western coast of Maungtaw in western Rakhine state, and found that one of the boats carried 208 people while the other one was empty.

The 53-year old Thai citizen, Ou Mint, who lives in Ranoung, southern Thailand, was said to have contacted human trafficking gangs in Bangladesh and trafficked people into Thailand and Malaysia, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

According to the Myanmar ministry of home affairs, the Myanmar police, in cooperation with the Thai police, are trying to arrest the other people involved in the case, A Xinhua news agency report said.

Among the 208 boat people, 200 were identified as Bangladeshis and arrangement are being made to repatriate them to their homeland under an agreement between authorities of Myanmar and Bangladesh.