The Obama Administration moved one step closer to its goal of closing Guantanamo Bay by releasing five more prisoners and transferring them to another country earlier this week.

The Defense Department announced Wednesday five prisoners were moved out of Guantanamo Bay and sent to Kazakhstan for resettlement during an overnight transfer on Tuesday.

"The United States coordinated with the Government of Kazakhstan to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures," the Pentagon said, according to USA Today.

Two men from Tunisia and three from Yemen were released after being detained at the prison for more than a decade due to their suspected ties to al-Qaida. None of the men were ever charged with a crime, and a government task force decided it was not necessary to hold them any longer.

The Yemeni men have been identified as Asim Thabit Abdullah Al-Khalaqi, who is about 46; Muhammad Ali Husayn Khanayna, who is about 36; and Sabri Mohammad al Qurashi, who is around 44 years old. Meanwhile, the Tunisians were identified as 49-year-old Adel Al-Hakeemy and 48-year-old Abdallah Bin Ali al Lufti, reports Fox News.

Since opening in 2002, Gitmo has held nearly 800 prisoners. However, critics say locking up suspected terrorists without due process is unethical and defies Americans values. President Obama has also pointed out the facility festers anti-U.S. jihadists around the world and costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year to operate.

"I'm going to be doing everything I can to close" the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Obama told CNN's Candy Crowley back in December. "It [Gitmo] is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world, the fact that these folks are being held. It is contrary to our values."

Altogether, the president has released 28 prisoners from Gitmo in 2014, bringing the prison population down to 127 in effort to close the controversial facility for good.

Republicans, however, have objected to Obama's plan to transfer detainees out of Gitmo since many return to the battlefield to fight against the U.S. and its allies.

"Rather than closing Guantanamo Bay, he should be filling up the place because terrorism is on the march," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told CBS News last month.