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The Trump administration has placed most United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employees back on administrative leave from midnight on Sunday and laid off hundreds more.

In addition to some 4,200 staff who are being placed on leave, at least 1,600 employees are being fired, BBC News reported.

The move comes weeks after President Donald Trump's initial attempt to eliminate thousands of USAID employees was held up by a legal challenge.

A federal judge temporarily halted the administration's plan to gut America's foreign aid agency, but ruled on Friday that the pause would not be permanent. Founded in 1961, USAID employed around 10,000 staff until the recent cost-cutting began.

The notice to USAID employees on Sunday from the Office of the Administrator said that "designated personnel" responsible for critical functions or in leadership would be exempt from administrative leave.

It's not clear how many employees will be kept on, but USAID had previously deemed 611 personnel to be essential.

The email said USAID intended to fund voluntary return travel for overseas staff.

Around 4,200 employees will be placed on leave, according to the BBC's US news partner CBS.

The USAID website said there would be a "reduction-in-force" of an additional 1,600 personnel in the US.

That would amount to at least 5,800 USAID employees on administrative leave or laid off - or well over half the agency's workforce.

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), one of the unions representing USAID personnel, “is deeply disappointed by the administration’s hurried and callous decision to keep our dedicated public servants in limbo,” its president, Tom Yazdgerdi, said Sunday.

“Time and again, our members have shared how these reckless choices and the dehumanizing rhetoric directed at them have caused untold harm to their personal and professional lives,” Yazdgerdi said after Sunday’s email announcement.