Washington D.C.House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith released the following statement in response to the recent transfer of three ethnic Uighur Chinese nationals to Slovakia:

I am pleased to see that the Obama Administration has transferred three more detainees out of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Slovakia.

The latest transfer of three ethnic Uighur Chinese nationals, who were cleared by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force and designated for transfer by unanimous consent among all six agencies on the task force, demonstrate that the process to close the detention facility is beginning to work.

The transfer represents progress towards accomplishing the important national security goal of closing the excessively expensive, damaging and unnecessary detention facility. While congressionally created barriers remain, I applaud the President for his commitment to closing the facility.