Over 900 Cambodians who were living on the streets in Thailand were repatriated to

Cambodia by Thai authorities.

The Cambodians were flown home--600 on September 30 and 300 on October 3-in a move

to clean up Bangkok and combat poverty in preparation for the APEC summit later this

month.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the returnees had been given enough

rice and noodles for a few days and are being transported to their home towns.

Sopheak said, "I think most of them are happy to return to their homeland."

He said that they came from all over the country. He speculated that many of them

had been lured to Thailand under false offers of employment or trafficked there,

only to find hard times as beggars.