An aircraft carrying U.S. deportees arrived in South Sudan on Saturday, two officials working at Juba airport said, after eight migrants lost their last-ditch effort to halt their deportation by the Trump administration.

A group of eight criminal migrants, deported from the United States and stranded for weeks at a military base in Djibouti, arrived in South Sudan on Saturday, a foreign ministry official told AFP. Only one of the deportees is from South Sudan but the administration of US President Donald Trump has sought to remove unwanted migrants to third countries as other nations sometimes refuse to accept returnees.

The US has deported eight people to South Sudan following a legal battle that saw them diverted to Djibouti for several weeks. The men - convicted of crimes including murder, sexual assault and robbery - had either completed or were near the end of their prison sentences.