Normal life has returned to a Rohingya Muslim refugee camp in Bangladesh a day after government officials abandoned plans to begin repatriating residents to Myanmar after finding no one wanted to go.

About 500 refugees crowded into a mosque on Friday for prayers in Unchiprang, one of the camps near the city of Cox's Bazar that houses more than 700,000 Rohingya who fled military-led violence in Myanmar.

An imam told the devotees that the government could not force Rohingya to go back without Myanmar guaranteeing them protection and civil rights, to which they replied, "Amen".

Some people on the government's repatriation list left their shanties and disappeared into other camps to avoid being sent home, while others joined a large demonstration against the plan.

Some who fled returned on Friday.