Myanmar has agreed to take back some 9,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees currently living in camps in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi foreign minister says.

Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said after meeting his Myanmar counterpart that the two sides had agreed to begin returning the Rohingya to Myanmar as soon as possible.

Human-rights groups have said the Rohingya face religious persecution and abuses from Myanmar's military government which does not recognise the group as an ethnic minority.

Many have complained they face beatings and arbitrary arrests, as well as restrictions on movement, education and employment.

Thousands of Rohingya began fleeing Myanmar in the late 1970s and Bangladesh says there are currently about 28,000 living in camps in the southeast of the country.

Another 300,000 are thought to be living illegally outside the camps.

Early this year hundreds of Rohingya migrants washed up on the shores of Thai and Indonesian islands, having fled Myanmar in crowded fishing boats.

Many complained that they had been beaten and robbed by Myanmar soldiers, and then faced further abuse from Thai authorities who pushed them back out to sea with their boats' engines disabled.