Six migrants deported from the United States resisted getting off a plane in Liberia on Thursday and were instead flown to Equatorial Guinea, where they joined dozens of others held at a former hotel.

The group included four Cuban men, one Brazilian man and one Cameroonian woman. They had arrived in Monrovia aboard a flight that carried about 20 deportees under a new agreement allowing Liberia to accept up to 1,200 third-country removals over 12 months. The migrants refused to disembark, telling officials that Liberia was not their country and that they would face danger there, according to a Honduran deportee on the flight and lawyers in contact with the group.

Authorities separated the six from the other passengers. The migrants were told they would return to the United States but the plane continued to Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, where the group was forced off the aircraft. They are now detained with roughly 40 other deportees at the Bamy Hotel.

Equatorial Guinea entered a third-country deportation agreement with the Trump administration earlier. The arrangement forms part of broader U.S. efforts to remove individuals who cannot be sent directly to their home countries. A person familiar with the flight described the scene in Malabo as chaotic, with some arrivals in restraints and distress.

The remaining deportees on the Liberia flight exited the plane as planned. Liberia has stated it will treat the arrivals as guests who may apply for asylum or eventually depart.

Conditions at the Equatorial Guinea facility have drawn complaints of limited medical access and reports of guards using force. Lawyers representing some of the detainees noted the absence of on-site medical staff and said one Cuban man requires regular care for a colostomy bag.

The Department of Homeland Security has described the actions as consistent with existing law on third-country removals. The incident marks the first reported case of deportees refusing to exit a flight in one African nation and being redirected to another under these agreements.