Algeria's government said rights groups were leading a "malicious campaign" against it after non-governmental organisations (NGOs) accused the country of arresting and forcibly deporting sub-Saharan migrants.
"Algeria strongly rejects these serious accusations that aim... to undermine its image and its relations with its neighbours in the south," the foreign ministry said in a statement seen by AFP news agency.
It said that it deports illegal migrants with consultation of their home countries and with "full respect for human dignity and rights".
The foreign ministry also added that the government is being wrongly accused "of failing to meet its international obligations".
Algerian activists launched a "We are all migrants!" campaign in mid-May, which accused the state of a "campaign of arbitrary arrests, followed by mass and collective expulsions".
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on 18 May that it has dealt with almost 10,000 migrants abandoned in the desert near the Niger border since September.
The UN agency says some had been left traffickers and others were deported by Algerian authorities.
An estimated 100,000 migrants entered Algeria in the past few years.
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