Washington, January 1 (RHC-PL), -- Efforts by United States President Barack Obama to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in the illegally occupied Cuban territory appear to be moving forward with the transfer of five detainees from the facility to Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

The US Department of Defence has announced that it would be transferring to that Asian country three Yemenis and two Tunisians, raising to 28 the number of prisoners transferred in 2014 from the detention centre that is located at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base, which occupied Cuban territory against the will of the government and the people of the island nation.

The five former prisoners are "free" for all effects and purposes, stated a senior US Administration official, quoted by the New York Times newspaper.

The newspaper indicated the authorities did not make clear what would be the security guarantees negotiated with Kazakhstan in order to prevent these men from returning to the battlefields in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

There are still 127 prisoners in Guantanamo, but 2014 had been the year in which the largest number of transfers had taken place since Obama assumed the presidency. The president had recently pointed out the "national imperative" of closing the detention center, which was opened in 2002.