NIAMEY, Niger, Sept 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Algeria has turned back nearly 20,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to neighbouring Niger since January, in often "brutal conditions", Niamey-based NGO Alarme Phone Sahara told AFP on Monday.

Irregular migrants, including women and children, have since 2014 frequently been pushed back by Algeria, a key transit point for those attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Alarme Phone Sahara -- which rescues migrants in the vast desert spanning Algeria and Niger -- recorded 19,798 people turned back between January and August, its communications officer Moctar Dan Yaye said.

Migrants are often expelled "in brutal conditions" and in the "worst cases, with deadly consequences", the NGO said in a report published in late August.

"Migrants get arrested during raids on where they live or work in cities, or at the Tunisian border, and are pooled in Tamanrasset (southern Algeria) before being driven in trucks towards Niger," said Yaye.

Nigeriens are then transported overland to Assamaka, the first Nigerien village on the other side of the border, where they are handled by local authorities.

Other nationals, however, are abandoned at "point zero", a desert area marking the Algerian-Nigerien border.

From there, they are forced to walk 15 kilometres (nine miles) to Assamaka in extreme temperatures, said Yaye.

Once registered by Nigerien police in Assamaka, migrants are hosted in United Nations and Italian temporary housing centres, before being moved to other centres in northern Niger, Yaye added.

"We hear a lot of stories from migrants involving abuse, violence and confiscation of their belongings by Algerian forces," he said.

Niger's junta, which took power last year, in April summoned the Algerian ambassador to Niamey to protest against the "violent nature" of repatriation operations and deportations.

Algiers followed suit, calling in Niamey's envoy and discarding the allegations as "baseless".

Since Niger in November repealed a 2015 law that criminalised migrant trafficking, "numerous people have been moving freely" on migration routes "without fearing reprisals" as they did before, the NGO reported.