The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will start going through Malaysia's forests next week to collect information on refugees and asylum seekers from Indonesia and Burma.
The mobile team wants to register refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia ahead of an expected crackdown on illegal immigrants early next year.
The UNHCR released a statement Friday saying that among the 28,000 refugees and people of concern in Malaysia are about 10,000 Rohingya Muslims from Burma.
In early November, the Malaysian government said it would grant temporary stay permits to the Rohingyas, to protect them from being caught up in the crackdown.
The UNHCR statement said the organization is pressing the government to keep its promise to issue the permits.