DAKAR, Senegal, Sept 18, (AP): At least 11 of the 14 immigrants deported by the U.S. to Ghana are still being held in the West African nation, the deportees and their lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday, contradicting claims from Ghanaian authorities that the deportees have been sent to their home countries. Three of the deportees spoke to AP of the "terrible" conditions under which they are being held at the Bundase military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.

They said the 11 deportees still in Ghana include four Nigerians, three Togolese, two Malians and one each from Gambia and Liberia. A group of 14 immigrants was first deported by the US to Ghana on Sept 6, the deportees said, speaking to AP on the phone on the condition of anonymity for fear of their safety. The AP could not independently verify their current location. At least one of the 14 has returned to Gambia, his home country, according to his lawyer and US court filings.

Two others are believed to have been sent to their home country of Nigeria, the Gambian said in a declaration filed in court. He said the three of them were separated from the rest upon their arrival at the airport in Accra. The claims of the deportees that they are still being held in Ghana contradict that of Ghana’s presidential spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who on Tuesday told AP that all 14 deportees had been sent to their home countries.

The Ghanaian government previously said the 14 deportees were all Nigerian besides one Gambian. Ofosu did not immediately respond to AP’s inquiry on Wednesday. The confusion surrounding the deportations reflects the dizzying pace at which the Trump administration has moved ahead with its immigration priorities, which lawyers say has come at the cost of immigrants’ legal rights and sometimes puts their safety at risk.

In interviews with AP, the deportees said they were not told by U.S. authorities why they were being deported. They said some of them had already spent between seven months to a year in US detention and that some had won their immigration cases. The AP could not independently verify their court records. They also narrated a brutal deportation process during which some of them were handcuffed and put in a straitjacket on their flight to Ghana.