Thai authorities on Friday repatriated almost 1,000 Kayin (Karen) State residents who had fled fighting into Mae Sot, a border town in western Thailand across from western Myanmar’s Myawaddy Township.

“We don’t know why they were forced to return,” said a volunteer helping the displaced people, who added that nearly 980 Kayin residents were sent back to Myanmar.

The returnees — from Lay Kay Kaw new city and Mae Htaw Tha Lay, Falu Lay and Min Letpan villages — had crossed the border into Mae Sot following clashes in the Lay Kay Kaw area earlier this year.

Thai authorities told them to return, saying there is no ongoing fighting near the Thai-Myanmar border, and they were ferried across the Moei River to Kayin State, said a returnee.

“Thai soldiers forced us to take ferries across the Moei River to the Myanmar side. We were forcibly sent back despite the fact that the Moei River was flowing rapidly because it is the rainy season. Some boats even collided with each other,” said the returnee.

Among those who were sent back to Myanmar are students, and elderly and sick people.

The Karen Human Rights Group urged the Thai government to respect international human rights law and to assist the refugees on humanitarian grounds.

Some 100,000 people displaced by fighting between Karen National Liberation Army-led resistance forces and Myanmar’s military regime in the Lay Kay Kaw and Waw Lay areas since December of last year are taking shelter along the Moei River on the Thai-Myanmar border.