Mark Dodd, Dili – Indonesian authorities have told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that thousands of refugees are likely to be repatriated amid unconfirmed reports that militia gangs are losing control of the border refugee camps.

A Dili-based spokesman for UNHCR, Mr Peter Kessler, said Indonesian authorities in West Timor had told him that 2,000 refugees would cross this week at a remote site in the country's south-west corner near the hamlet of Belulik Leten, an area controlled by New Zealand peacekeepers.

This is the first sign Jakarta may be bowing to international pressure to take action against paramilitary gangs holding about 120,000 East Timorese refugees hostage in the camps. The news follows conflicting reports by returning refugees of action against members of the gangs by Indonesian soldiers and police.

Supervising the arrival of 22 refugees on Saturday, UNHCR official Ms Anna Wiktorowski said returning refugees claimed restrictions were being eased, allowing them to leave camps near Turiskai and Hakaesak.

"They say permission is easier to get. Two or three days ago TNI [Indonesian military] entered the camps and there was shooting and firing and most of the militia fled into the hills," she said.

One of the refugees, Mr Daniel de Olivieira, a former government employee returning home to Maliana, said the border town of Atambua, where three UN international staff were murdered by a militia mob on September 6, had been secured by Indonesian police and soldiers.

Major John McAffrey, the senior Australian Army officer at the Malibaka checkpoint, six kilometres from Maliana, said five UN military observation posts on the border had called to report heavy gunfire inside Indonesia near Hakaesak on October 5, suggesting a clash between Indonesian troops and militia.

Mr Kessler warned that the shortage of food in the camps was becoming critical, and many refugees might be preparing to break out of the camps in desperation.