Heads of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) from other countries giving refuge to Rohingya are also expected to arrive during Lim's nine-day trip, sources say.

"It is a regular visit compounded by the recent incidents that have taken place at the camps," said Mamo Mulusew, deputy representative of the UNHCR in Dhaka.

Lim is expected to visit Cox's Bazar to probe the incidents that started on September 23 when a UN staff was manhandled by a group of Rohingya refugees in the Kutupalong Camp in Ukhiya.

The UNHCR currently coordinates operations in the two Rohingya camps in Kutupalong and Nayapara, where, according to official estimates, 19,944 Rohingyas of Myanmar origin are currently taking refuge on Bangladeshi soil.

Local people, however, say there are about two lakh 'unofficially estimated' refugees in the Cox's Bazar district. Many of them are involved with gunrunning, arms manufacture, militancy and other criminal activities.

Mulusew said in her subsequent high-level meetings at the foreign, disaster management and relief, and home ministries, Lim will have "brainstorming sessions with the government about what has happened and what we can do".

He, however, added there has been no definite plan as yet.

In addition to the recent violence in the Kutupalong refugee camp, the Malaysian government's giving 10,000 Rohingyas refugee status and work permit has added new twists to the issue of their repatriation, sources say.

The government in September rejected outright a UN proposal styled, "Programme of Self Reliance of Refugees and Support to the Refugee and Host Community", that came in different words and forms in the last two years.

The UNHCR works on three tracks on refugees: resettlement, repatriation and local integration. It also protects the rights of refugees not to be repatriated involuntarily.