Bangladesh says Myanmar to take back 9,000 refugees

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar carry pots to collect drinking water from a well in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar August 16, 2009.

DHAKA (Reuters) - Myanmar has agreed to take back 9,000 Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said on Tuesday, offering a part solution to a problem that dates back 30 years.

Dhaka says there are about 28,000 Rohingyas living in two camps in southeastern Bangladesh bordering Myanmar, and around 300,000 others living illegally outside the camps.

Myanmar had assured Bangladesh it will begin the process of repatriation "as soon as possible", Quayes said after a meeting with his counterpart Maung Myint, who arrived in Dhaka on Monday.

Rohingyas, not recognised as an ethnic minority by Myanmar, allege human rights abuse by the military junta, saying it deprives them of free movement, education and employment.

Rohingyas have been leaving Myanmar and heading mainly into impoverished Bangladesh since the late 1970s. The biggest influx occurred in 1992.

Rohingya refugees have created problems for several other countries in the region in recent months, with reports of Thailand putting those who come by boat back to sea, and others reaching Malaysia and Indonesia and trying to work illegally.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Nick Macfie)