The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday it was concerned about the safety of 56 Rohingya refugees from Burma on a boat bound for Malaysia in stormy seas.

Rohingya refugees continue to flee Burma for Bangladesh even though both countries set up a timetable last month to allow them to start to return home, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.

The two governments signed a pact on Thursday settling the terms for the repatriation process.

An alarming and unprecedented influx of 270,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks from violence in Burma, the UN refugee agency said on Friday, a dramatic jump in the total as new pockets of people are found.

"It's important to work on granting citizenship to the Muslim community, which has been deprived of citizenship for many years," Grandi told reporters in Bangkok.

A delegation led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees travelled to Arakan State on Sunday, visiting the troubled region less than a week after security forces there were put on high alert amid a spate of recent killings that the government has blamed on “terrorists.”