NAIROBI, Jan 29 (AFP) - Amnesty International on Friday urged Ethiopia to stop deporting Eritreans, and accused the authorities of ill-treating them.

A report by the London-based watchdog group said at least 22,000 Ethiopians had also returned home from Eritrea, mostly after losing their jobs there.

But it said it found no evidence to support Ethiopia's allegations that 40,000 of its citizens had been seriously ill-treated and forcibly deported from Eritrea since the two countries went to war over their ill-defined border in May last year.

Troops remain dug in along both sides of the border, which is some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) long.

"Ethiopia's policy of deporting people of Eritrean origin ... has now developed into a systematic, country-wide operation to arrest and deport anyone of full or part Eritrean descent, Amnesty said.

"Fifty-two thousand Eritreans have been arbitrarily deported from Ethiopia over the last seven months, 6,300 so far in January."

It said that women, some of them pregnant, children and the elderly, even hospital patients, were being arrested and detained in the middle of the night.

"People of all ages, from babies to pensioners, are imprisoned in harsh conditions for several days before being forced to board buses under armed guard with only one piece of luggage each -- if that -- and being dumped at the border," the report said.

"They arrive hungry and exhausted, and often ill, after the three-day journey."

It added that families were split up, with dependents often deported weeks or months after the main breadwinner.

In addition, "the many Ethiopians married to Eritreans are forbidden to leave and forced to watch helplessly while their spouse and children are deported," Amnesty said.

The deportees had to abandon homes, possessions, businesses and other property, it said, and were arbitrarily stripped of their Ethiopian citizenship.

"Amnesty International is reiterating its appeal to the Ethiopian government to put an immediate stop to the deportations and ill-treatment of deportees, and arbitrary detentions of thousands of other Eritreans, including 38 students in Blattein military camp. They contravene Ethiopia's laws and constitution, as well as the international human rights treaties Ethiopia has ratified."

The group also appealed to Eritrea to ratify the Geneva Conventions immediately, and for both sides to respect them in the event of further fighting.