MAE SOT, Thailand -- When aid groups arrived before noon on Wednesday to deliver lunch to around 2,000 Myanmar civilians sheltering in Mae Sot, a border town inside Thai territory, they found the biggest camp nearly cleared out.
Thai authorities had told the refugees that it was safe to return home, just three days after more than 3,000 residents of Myawaddy, a town in Myanmar just across the border, took refuge on the Thai side.