The lives of at least five Guantanamo Bay inmates are about to drastically improve, as the men prepare to swap the maximum security prison for life in Uruguay. At the request of the United States, Uruguay has agreed to take a number of detainees as the Guantanamo Bay prison slowly closes down.

Of the 154 prisoners remaining in the facility, Uruguay has agreed to take five. The U.S. embassy in Montevideo told the bbc that Uruguayan President Jose Mujica had been approached because of his “leadership in Latin America.”

The prisoners have been living in a high security facility under the watchful eye of American servicemen for years and are considered a significant threat to American security. The question now is, what precautions will be taken in Uruguay to prevent these men from returning to their former terrorist lives?

Rather than keep the men under lock and key, Mujica has promised the men the ability to “work and stay with their families in Uruguay.”

These men were not locked up in Guantanamo Bay without reason. These men were held because of their connection to or affiliation with terrorist operations in the Middle East. Now, however, the men will walk free in the streets of Montevideo.

The release brings up a greater problem. America is willing to entrust terrorists to third-party nations that may not have America’s interests at heart. In 2013, America moved Chinese nationals from Guantanamo to Slovakia, and today prisoners are scheduled to move to Uruguay. Pressure is mounting on the U.S. from both home and abroad to close down the prison. So what happens when the high-risk prisoners must be moved?

A lifetime of hating America, nurtured by a stint at Guantanamo Bay, could easily cause former inmates to return to their home countries not only as heroes, but as willing terrorists. The majority of the detainees left at Guantanamo are Yemenis. Today, Yemen remains a hive of terrorist activity. The closure of Guantanamo could see the terrorist ranks bolstered by those who have gone through Guantanamo and are ready to make up for lost time.

There is already ample proof that the catch-and-release policies of Guantanamo Bay have backfired. Appearing on a jihadist website in early 2009, terrorist Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri taunted his former American captors. Identifying himself by his Guantanamo number, 372, he said: “By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for.” Al-Shahri rose to al Qaeda’s number two leader in Yemen before he was killed in November 2013.

Regardless of where the terrorists are sent as Guantanamo closes, they are in for a better life. Many will find their way to peaceful nations and travel from there back to their countries of origin. Others may end up stateside. This is still a better option, because it means greater rights—including the right to a trial.

Former inmates have already proved themselves capable of rising to senior roles in terrorist groups once released. Watch as Guantanamo’s cells empty and terrorist ranks swell with hardened, bitter jihadists.