DHAKA: The secretary-level foreign office consultation (FOC) meeting between Bangladesh and Myanmar began on Sunday which is the 8th meeting between the two countries.

Bangladesh foreign secretary M Shahidul Huq and Myanmar deputy foreign secretary U Thant Kyaw are leading the respective delegation in the meeting.

According to the sources, Bangladesh is giving importance to resume the process to take Rohingyas back by Myanmar which was earlier began in 2010 and halted it followed communal clash in Rakhaine state of Myanmar.

The two nations will give emphasis to come up with a consensus in order to hold further talks on security issues in reducing the crisis of trust between the countries.

Sources said 30,000 documented refugees living in two refugee camps at Kutupalong and Nayapara of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

Besides, more than 500,000 undocumented Rohingyas are living outside the camp.

On Friday, Myanmar published the results of the latest census where the country discovered it has only 51 million people - far less than the previously estimated 60 million.

The census, conducted from March 30 to April 10 with help from the UN Population Fund, counted 51.42 million people.

The previous estimate of 60 million was based on extrapolations from the last census, conducted in 1983.

The tally went smoothly, except in some areas of the western state of Rakhine where an estimated 800,000 members of a long-persecuted Muslim minority were denied the right to identify themselves as "Rohingya".

The government says they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and calls them "Bengalis".

** Myanmar to take back 2,415 Rohingyas

BDST: 1142 HRS, AUG 31, 2014