Hundreds of Nigerians living in Chad, seeking safety from insurgents, were rounded up and deported last week, those arrested told AFP.
Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency for 17 years, since the 2009 Boko Haram uprising, which has spawned various factions of militants that have spread across Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The deportations come as analysts warn of an uptick in jihadist activity in northeast Nigeria over the past years.
Two Nigerians arrested in Chad told AFP around 600 of their countrymen were detained in mass arrests and dumped in the Cameroonian town of Kousseri, which sits just across the border from Chad’s capital N’Djamena.
Chadian police confirmed that deportations took place, without giving a figure.
They said they had launched “a routine operation” against undocumented immigrants without regard to nationality.
“On Friday, security personnel raided our home,” Kyari Musa, who had been living in N’Djamena, told AFP.
“They said all Nigerian refugees are Boko Haram and should leave their country. They took our biometric data,” he said.
“They warned that whoever returns and is caught will spend 20 years in jail.”
On Saturday, the Nigerians said Chadian customs agents took them to the Nigerian border town of Gamboru.
“The mass arrests started on Wednesday,” said Ari Modu, who said he was bailed out of jail by his boss and is still living in Chad.
Some 227 people were arrested on Wednesday, Modu told AFP. He and Musa both said that officials rounded up another 371 people on Friday.
“The police carried out a roundup of individuals in an irregular situation, regardless of nationality, who were subsequently escorted to the border,” Paul Manga, deputy director general of Chad’s national police, told AFP. “This is not a witch hunt.”
Nigeria’s jihadist conflict has for years presented security challenges in neighbouring countries as militants have spread to Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Nigeria, for its part, has also moved in recent years to repatriate its citizens from Chad and return them to their homes.
However, ex-refugees interviewed by AFP last year said that upon returning to their home villages in northeast Nigeria, they found themselves on the front line of a violent conflict.
In safer, larger cities, they face unemployment or poverty amid a weak economy.
Some ended up crossing back to Chad, where they had lived and worked for a decade. (AFP).