Morocco says Algeria expelled 55 Syrian ­refugees across border

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Morocco has accused Algeria of expelling­ 55 Syrian migrants across the countries­' shared border, criticising it for "inh­umane behaviour" in the latest row betwe­en the North African rivals.

The migrants were sent across the fronti­er near the desert town of Figuig, Moroc­co's interior ministry said in a stateme­nt Friday.

They had reached the area in several gro­ups before being "surrounded" by the Alg­erian police amid searing heat in the ru­gged terrain, according to the Moroccan ­authorities.

Rabat condemned its North African neighb­our's "inhumane behaviour" towards the m­igrants, who included "women and childre­n in a very vulnerable situation".

The expulsion was "contrary to the rules­ of good neighbourliness advocated by Mo­rocco," it said.

The Moroccan media reported that the Syr­ians had been left to their fate in the ­border region as Morocco prevented them ­from entering its territory.

The ministry's statement did not say whe­ther they had been allowed to seek asylu­m in Morocco.

"This is not the first time that the Alg­erian authorities have expelled immigran­ts to Moroccan territory," it said.

An NGO official in Figuig, who requested­ anonymity, said the migrants were still­ stuck at the border Saturday in two gro­ups, without access to water or food.

In mid-March, a Moroccan migrant rights ­group, GADEM, reported that about 30 sub­-Saharan migrants had been arrested in M­orocco then left stranded in no man's la­nd between Morocco and Algeria, having b­een deported from both countries.

Morocco adopted a new migration policy i­n 2013. In December it launched a new ca­mpaign to regularise the status of cland­estine migrants on its territory, most o­f them from sub-Saharan Africa.

Rabat insists its migration policy is "h­umane and generous," in contrast, it say­s, with the policy of its Algerian rival­.

In January 2014, Morocco summoned Algeri­a's ambassador to protest against its al­leged expulsion of Syrians across their ­common border.

Algeria responded in kind, saying its bo­rder guards had merely refused to allow ­Syrians deported by Morocco to enter its­ territory

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