Bangladesh plea to UNHCR

The Bangladeshi Government has urged the United Nations refugee agency not to consider any cut in its role of helping to look after 25,000 refugees from Burma.

The government said it had received a letter from the agency announcing that its staff would, from December, no longer be closely involved in the voluntary repatriation of refugees to Burma.

The BBC correspondent in Bangladesh says the UN agency has declined to comment, but there have been reports that it wants the refugees, known as Rohingyas, to become more self-sufficient.

The refugees, who live in three camps near the south-western town of Cox's Bazaar, say they were forced to leave Burma because of persecution.)

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service