SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court has ruled that the government must pay 80 million won ($70,000) to three men who were enslaved on salt farms in remote islands off the country's southwest coast for several years.

The Seoul High Court on Friday said the government was responsible over their ordeals because local officials and police failed to properly monitor their living and work environments.

More than 60 slaves, most of them with intellectual disabilities, were rescued from remote islands off South Korea's southwestern coast following an investigation led by mainland police in 2014.

The Associated Press documented some of their stories in a yearlong investigation.