Algerian authorities have expelled thousands of migrants and asylum seekers to Niger during waves of roundups of mostly sub-Saharan Africans across at least nine cities in recent weeks, Human Rights Watch said Friday. “Security personnel have separated children from their families during mass arrests, stripped migrants and asylum seekers of their belongings, and failed to allow them to challenge their removal or screen them for refugee status,” it said in a report. “Scores of asylum seekers registered with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, are among those arrested, with several already expelled,” HRW said in the report issued in Beirut. Over 3,400 migrants have been expelled in the past month, it said. This brings the total number expelled this year to over 16,000, the watchdog added, basing its calculations on reports from aid groups in Niger. “Algerian authorities crammed most Nigeriens into trucks or buses and handed them over to Niger’s army, in what are termed “official” repatriation convoys; others, in convoys of mixed nationalities, were left in the desert near the border,” said the report. The director of a government body tasked with sheltering the homeless, who refused to be identified, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the gendarmerie transported to a shelter more than 300 migrants from five African countries when the coronavirus pandemic erupted. He said the migrants received the necessary treatment for three months, but were then expelled to the southern border based on an agreement with the government of Niger. “Algeria is entitled to protect its borders, but not to arbitrarily detain and collectively expel migrants, including children and asylum seekers, without a trace of due process,” said Lauren Seibert, refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW. “Before moving to deport anyone, authorities should verify their immigration or asylum status individually and ensure individual court reviews.” The recent roundups and expulsions mark the sharpest spike in these operations since the start of the pandemic in March, said the report. However, Algeria had never fully stopped expelling migrants to Niger, even after official closures of the borders in March, it quoted migrants and aid workers as saying. In late September and early October, HRW interviewed by phone 6 Sierra Leonean, Guinean, Nigerian, and Ivorian migrants – 1 woman and 5 men – expelled to Niger during 2020, 2 migrants detained in Algeria, an aid worker working in Algeria, and 10 humanitarian aid workers in Niger assisting migrants expelled from Algeria. Both unaccompanied children and children separated from their families during the roundups – some younger than 10 – have been detained and deported, according to aid workers assisting migrants in Algeria and Niger. “It’s unbelievable that they can be arresting small children without even knowing where their parents are,” one aid worker said.