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Background: Months after the start of the exodus of refugees from East Pakistan in the Spring, fresh thousands are still pouring into crowded West Bengal daily.

In the Basirhat sub-division, the refugee camps are full, but fortunately many of the new arrivals are able to help themselves. They are energetically building themselves huts, creating a roadside community on the Bongoa-Basirhat route.

The Indian authorities now put the national number of refugees they are sheltering at seven million, too much they say for them to cope with alone. Yet on Monday India rejected a U.N. offer to station observers in both India and Pakistan to help re-patriation. The Indians feel this will divert world attention from what they regard as 'military atrocities' by the Pakistan army in East Pakistan.