ALGERIAN authorities rounded up more than 1,800 people and left them at the Nigerien border in a record expulsion earlier this month, a Niger-based migrant rights group said on Thursday.

Alarmphone Sahara, which monitors migration across the region, said that the migrants were bused to a remote desert area known as Point Zero after being apprehended in Algerian cities.

Abdou Aziz Chehou, the group’s national co-ordinator, told reporters on Thursday that 1,845 people without legal status in Algeria had been counted, arriving in Niger’s border town of Assamaka after the April 19 mass expulsion.

That pushed the total number of expelled migrants arriving in Assamaka this month beyond 4,000, he said.

The mass deportations come amid rising tensions between Algeria and its southern neighbours, all now led by military juntas that ousted elected governments previously aligned with Algiers.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew their ambassadors from Algeria earlier this month over border security disputes.

For migrants fleeing poverty, conflict or climate change, Algeria serves as a transit point en route to Europe.

Many cross vast stretches of the Sahara en route before attempting dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean.

But reinforced maritime patrols, funded, trained and equipped by the European Union, have stranded increasing numbers in transit countries with checkered human rights records and limited humanitarian aid.

In 2024, Alarmphone Sahara recorded more than 30,000 people expelled from Algeria. Similar illegal pushbacks have also been reported in neighbouring Morocco, Tunisia and Libya.

Neither Algerian nor Nigerien officials have commented on the latest expulsions, which are rarely reported in Algerian press.

In the past, Nigerien authorities have said such actions appear to violate a 2014 agreement that allows only Nigerien nationals to be deported across the border.