Algerian authorities have deported more than 16,000 undocumented migrants to the Nigerien border since April, according to local officials in Arlit, a northern region of Niger. On Sunday and Monday alone, 1,466 migrants reportedly arrived in the border town of Assamaka.

The humanitarian organization Alarm Phone Sahara, which operates in Niger, stated in a recent report that these deportees account for more than half of the total number of migrants expelled from Algeria in 2024, which has now reached 31,000.

The deportations come amid rising tensions between Algeria and Niger’s new military-led government, which in 2023 repealed a law criminalizing the operations of migrant smuggling networks along two key desert routes—one leading to Algeria and the other to Libya.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has expressed concern over the repeal of the law, warning that it could trigger an unmanageable surge in irregular migration across the region.