Half a dozen detainees are being transferred from Cuba's Guantanamo Bay to Uruguay -- a country of 3.2 million with few Muslims and whose residents are divided over the move, according to The Associated Press.

The six men -- four Syrians, one Palestinian and one Tunisian -- have been locked up without being charged since 2002 but cannot be released to their homelands by the U.S., AP reported.

The U.S. announced the transfer of the detainees to Uruguay in mid-July.

After President Barack Obama closed the detention center, about 600 prisoners were released back to their home countries. But of the 149 who remain, returning home is not possible because they face harm or persecution, or because of a lack of security and stability.

But their new home in Uruguay offers a start to a new life, as some Uruguyan businesses have offered to find them work.

"With the exception of the dictatorship, Uruguay has been a country of refuge and for us it's a matter of principle," President Jose Mujica said on a radio show, according to AP.

Mujica told AP in May that the detainees would be allowed to move about freely in the country.

The president is no stranger to prison; as a former leftist guerrilla, he was jailed before and during the dictatorship that ruled the country in 1973-85, AP reported.

But aside from businesses and the president, some residents may not be welcoming to the detainees.

"Uruguay is an open country, made up of easygoing people who accept all cultures. But for a significant number, Islam has a bad image," Jaled Elqut, an Egyptian native and prayer leader at an Islamic cultural center in Montevideo, told AP.

There are only about 300 Muslims in Uruguay, which are found along the border of neighboring Brazil and Argentina who have significantly larger populations.

"[Uruguyan Muslims] are quiet, generally trying to stay out of politics," Susana Mangana, a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Universidad Catolica, told the AP. "I imagine there won't even be a committee to receive the prisoners from Guantanamo.