DHAKA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua)-- Bangladesh has taken move to facilitate the repatriation of its nationals rescued from a rickety boat in India's eastern sea coast, the country's Foreign Ministry spokesman Yeakub Ali said here on Tuesday.

    In this connection, he said Bangladesh's Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Tuesday held an urgent meeting and instructed the country's relevant authorities for necessary measures.

    The foreign adviser expressed his deep sorrow at the incident that came to his notice on Monday.

    Some 300 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar were reportedly missing and feared dead off India's eastern coast after they jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for 13 days and tried to swim to shore.

    Indian authorities rescued 102 others on the boat and searching for the missing people in the waters near the Andaman Islands.

    It is believed that the Bangladeshis were trying to go any nearby country with some Burmese by the small boat illegally.

    "There is no need to seek such desperate methods to go abroad when this can be done easily legally. In fact this year we have issued clearances for over 870,000 workers for employment abroad, which is a record," the foreign adviser was quoted as saying by the spokesman of the ministry.

    Boat capsize with illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is a recurring story, with Thailand, Malaysia and some other Southeast Asian countries being the destinations of workers seeking to go illegally.

    In November last year a trawler and two boats sank off Shah Parir Island in Teknaf close to Bangladesh's border with Myanmar as they were overloaded with an estimated 230 people on board to go to Malaysia illegally.

    Sources said there is a syndicate, comprising people from Bangladesh and neighboring Myanmar, who have long been involved in trafficking people from the country.