The exact number of ethnic Rohingyas killed in recent violence of shootings and arson attacks by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist monks is not known, sources said.
The strife-stricken Rakhine State has a population of around 800,000 people. At least 480,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed from Myanmar to Bangladesh in the last one month.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims were killed in Myanmar's Rakhine State in last three days, the European Rohingya Council said in a recent statement. Meanwhile, many of the displaced persons told the Daily Observer on Wednesday that most have lost one or more male members of their family in the recent violence.
At least 84,000 families of Rohingya Muslims crossed from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Bangladesh Army has started working to build 14,000 new shelters for the fresh arrivals.
Children make up about 60 per cent of more than 480,000 people who have poured into Bangladesh over the last four weeks.
A group of aid organizations said the total number of refugees who had fled to Bangladesh since August 25 had been revised up to 480,000, after 35,000 people were found to have been missed out of the previous tally. The area where Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist monks are engaged in shooting and arson attacks has a population of around 800,000 people.
Most of the refugees have seen family members killed and homes set on fire. They have known fear and terror and they have endured dangerous journeys through dense forests and on rickety boats.
Sometimes they have done it alone. UNICEF has so far counted more than 1,600 children who have crossed the border with neither parent.
The violence and the refugee exodus is the biggest crisis the government of Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi has faced since it came to power last year in a transition from nearly 50 years of military rule.
Myanmar regards the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and bouts of suppression and strife have flared for decades. Most Rohingyas are stateless.
Suu Kyi has faced scathing criticism and calls for her Nobel prize to be withdrawn. She denounced rights violations in an address last week and vowed that abusers would be prosecuted. She also said any refugee verified as coming from Myanmar under a 1992 process agreed with Bangladesh would be allowed back.
But many refugees are gloomy about their chances of going home, saying they fear they lack the paperwork they expect would be demanded to prove they came from Myanmar.
Aid agencies say refugees are still arriving though at a slower rate, and they have a contingency plan for a total of 700,000.
That figure is part of an overall plan to help 1.2 million people, including 200,000 Rohingyas who were already in camps in Bangladesh and 300,000 people in "host communities", or people helping refugees who also need aid.
Later, media reports emerged saying Myanmar security forces used disproportionate force and displaced thousands of Rohingya villagers, destroying homes with mortars and machine guns.
The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.
They are not officially recognized as an ethnic group, partly due to a 1982 law stipulating that minorities must prove they lived in Myanmar prior to 1823 -- before the first Anglo-Burmese war -- to obtain nationality.
Most live in the impoverished western state of Rakhine but are denied citizenship and harassed by restrictions on movement and work.
According to a UNHCR report on forced displacement in South-East Asia, over 168,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar in the last five years as a result of violence and desperation.
Between 1991 and 1992, nearly 250,000 Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh amid grave human rights violations such as rape, forced labour, and religious persecution.
