PORT BLAIR, India (AFP) - The Indian Coast Guard said Sunday it had rescued hundreds of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar who claimed to have been arrested by Thai authorities and set adrift on the high seas.

The migrants were found in several boats floating in stormy seas off India's Andaman and Nicobar islands in the southern part of the Bay of Bengal, and Indian officials said many more may be missing.

Indian Coast Guard commander S.P. Sharma told AFP that Indian ships had "rescued 446 Bangladeshi and Myanmarese refugees from four boats" since December 29.

Sharma said the migrants had told Indian authorities that they had been arrested by Thai officials, and then set adrift on December 17 or 18 on boats without engines or any navigational equipment.

"Some survivors also said their boat was towed out to sea by the Thai navy and given two sacks of boiled rice and two gallons of water before being abandoned in the middle of the sea," he added.

A police official on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Ranjit Narayan, said the "latest batch of 152 were rescued yesterday (Saturday)."

"We alerted the coast guard on Tuesday, who reached them days later as the seas were very rough. Some of those rescued were in pretty bad shape," he said.

He said survivors had told Indian officials that "they were promised jobs in Thailand and Indonesia by some agents in Bangladesh."

"Soon after they set sail they were captured by some men wearing what they described as Thai army and navy uniforms. After their capture they said they were taken to an island off the Thai coast and beaten up before being forced into boats and pushed into the high seas," he added.

Narayan said the Indian foreign ministry in New Delhi had been informed.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands are a chain of 536 islands in the Indian Ocean, of which only 58 are inhabited. The islands are closer to Myanmar and Thailand than the Indian mainland.