The United States has transferred the last three Chinese Uyghur prisoners from Guantánamo to Slovakia five years after a judge ruled their detention was unlawful. The Uyghurs are members of a Muslim minority that faces persecution in China. They had been held for more than a decade without any evidence of ties to terror groups. Nineteen other Uyghur prisoners previously held at Guantánamo have already been resettled in five other countries. On Thursday, State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf hailed the transfers as part of a push to close Guantánamo.

Marie Harf: “The U.S. government long ago determined that it did not seek to detain these individuals, the Uyghurs, as enemy combatants. And in 2008, these latest ones that were released were among 17 Uyghur detainees ordered released from Guantánamo by a U.S. federal court. We’ve long maintained our position that we will not repatriate Uyghurs to China from Guantánamo due to our humane treatment policies. As we’ve also said, we’re taking all possible steps to reduce the detainee population at Guantánamo Bay, and it is certainly our position that these latest transfers mark an important step in furthering that objective.”

Eight other prisoners have been removed from Guantánamo since August, but 155 remain.