who represents one of the nationals, told The Associated Press on Thursday the group arrived in Ghana on November 5 and were put in a hotel. They are protected from deportation to their home countries due to the risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment, she said. "We don't know the location of any of them," Dionne-Lanier said, adding that neither she nor her client's family has been able to reach him. She said part of the group was sent by bus to an unknown border location between last weekend and Monday, while a second group, which included her client, was moved "under heavy armed guard" from the hotel around Wednesday.

The Ghanaian government didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Dozens of deportees have been sent to Africa from the US since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five African nations — including Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan — to take migrants under a new third-country deportation programme. The Trump administration's deportation programme has faced widespread criticism from human rights experts, who cite international protections for asylum-seekers and question whether immigrants will be appropriately screened before being deported. The administration has been seeking ways to deter immigrants from entering the US illegally and remove those who already have done so, especially those accused of crimes and including those who cannot easily be deported to their home countries. (Jamaica Gleaner)