Negotiations to enable census information to be collected from "Bengalis" had been fruitless, said the director-general of the ministry's Population Department, U Myint Kyaing, using the government's term  for Rohingya because it regards them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

“In this extended period we are no longer collecting census information door to door," said U Myint Kyaing, referring to the decision to extend the census by eight weeks to June 10 in both Rakhine and Kachin states.

"We have tried to negotiate with Bengalis and failed; we are now only collecting data from people who come to us and provide their race and name," he said.

The government controversially decided not to allow Rohingya to identify their ethnicity as such in the census, which was held in most of the country from March 30 to April 10.

Enumerators in Rakhine declined to collect data from those identifying as Rohingya.

Minister of Immigration and Population U Khin Yi had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a solution with leaders from the Rohingya community in the second week of May, U Myint Khaing said.

He said census data had been collected from about 20,000 "Bengalis", though Ministry of Immigration and Population records from 2012 indicate there are about 1.05 million people who Rakhine who identify as Rohingya.

U Myint Kyaing also said that census data was yet to be collected from nearly 100 villages in Kachin State that were outside the control of the