 Today it is a remote and sparsely populated border area with scattered settlements mostly made up of former rebels.Refugees from refugee camps in Aranyaprathet, Thailand, were forcefully sent back across the border in 1980 to areas under Khmer Rouge control and many of them ended up in Phnom Malai.The process was organized by pro-Democratic Kampuchea cadres, but it was presented to the press as "voluntary".