U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and deported immigrants are stuck in a shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti amid a court battle over the deportation, according to Trump administration officials.

The 13 officers and eight detainees are sick as they experience 100-degree outdoor temperatures, exposure to malaria, nearby burn pits, and potential attacks from terrorists in Yemen, according to a court filing by Melissa Harper, a top official in the ICE division responsible for deportations.

Harper explained in a sworn declaration filed Thursday that the detainees are being held in a shipping container repurposed as a conference room inside Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. naval base in the East African nation of Djibouti.

The eight illegal immigrants were being deported to South Sudan when Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy, in Boston, said they could not be sent there without being given a chance to contest their deportation, CBS News reported. The detainees are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Vietnam, and were convicted of murder, sexual offenses, and other serious crimes.

The judge had ordered the Trump administration to stop planned deportations to South Sudan after lawyers told him of an already-departed flight to the country. He cited his April ruling that prevented officials from deporting migrants to third countries, without affording them certain due process rights first.

Murphy ordered that the deportees be interviewed by U.S. asylum officers to determine whether they may face torture in South Sudan, and that the interviews could be conducted in the U.S. or overseas.

In Djibouti, which has the only U.S. military base in Africa, Harper said that there are burn pits close to the naval base, used by locals as a way of eliminating trash and waste, which have resulted in a "smog cloud" that has made breathing difficult for ICE officers.

"Within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti, the officers and detainees began to feel ill," Harper wrote. "ICE officers continue to feel ill with symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joints. These symptoms align with bacterial upper respiratory infection, but ICE officers are unable to obtain proper testing for a diagnosis." While some medicine has been used to manage the symptoms, Harper said it's "unknown" how long the supply will last. 

Department of Defense personnel warned ICE officials about an "imminent danger of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen," but the immigration officers lack body armor that would protect them from any such attacks.

The Trump administration has requested the Supreme Court stay Murphy's April order and highlighted the conditions that the ICE officers are facing.

“A small number of ICE personnel are currently guarding dangerous criminals around-the-clock in a converted conference room, under threat of rocket attacks and other security and health hazards – disrupting the base’s operations, consuming critical resources intended for service members, and harming national security,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in a court filing Thursday.