CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh (AFP) -- Myanmar's military junta has sent 12 more Bangladeshi Buddhist monks home, bringing to 27 the number expelled since a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, an official said Friday.

Myanmar immigration officials put the monks on a boat on the Naf river and sent word to Bangladeshi authorities about their departure, said Colonel Shawkat Imam of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
The Naf river forms a natural border between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
""We allowed the monks back to the country after we confirmed their identity. Their relatives also came to receive them,"" he said, adding that the Myanmar authorities did not say why the monks had been expelled.
Buddhist groups in Muslim-majority Bangladesh regularly send monks to monasteries in Myanmar for higher studies.
The military-backed emergency government in Bangladesh has said it is monitoring the situation in Myanmar since the September protests and has stepped up security along the border to prevent any influx of refugees.
Bangladesh hosts thousands of Myanmar refugees from the Muslim Rohingya minority, who escaped persecution under the junta and live in squalid camps in southeast districts.