Nineteen West African nationals recently deported by the United States to Ghana have been moved to an unknown location, said Ana Dionne-Lanier, a lawyer representing one of the migrants.

The group had arrived in the Ghanaian capital on November 5 and had been housed in a hotel, protected from any expulsion to their countries of origin due to the risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment.

“We don’t know where these people are,” Ms. Dionne-Lanier said, emphasizing that neither she nor the migrants’ families had been able to make contact with them. Part of the group was reportedly sent by bus to an unspecified border between last weekend and Monday, while a second group, including her client, was moved on Wednesday under heavy armed escort. The Ghanaian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

These deportations are part of a transfer program to third countries implemented by the Trump administration. Migrants have been sent to at least five African states, including Eswatini, Rwanda, and South Sudan. This largely secretive program has been criticized by human rights experts, who are concerned about respect for international protections for asylum seekers and the quality of pre-deportation screening.

Faced with court rulings preventing direct returns to their countries of origin, the US administration has intensified its bilateral agreements to transfer these migrants to third countries. In Ghana, the organization Democracy Hub filed a lawsuit last month against the Ghanaian government, arguing that the agreement with Washington is unconstitutional and likely to violate international conventions prohibiting the deportation of individuals to countries where they would face persecution.

The US Department of Justice reminded a federal court in September that it had no control over how another state treats transferred individuals, while emphasizing that Ghana had guaranteed it would not return these migrants to their countries of origin.

Since July, dozens of migrants have been transferred from America to Africa as part of this policy aimed at deterring illegal immigration and expelling those already present on American soil, including people accused of crimes or those who could not be sent directly home.