No more asylum seeker children will be held on Nauru with the final four preparing to fly to the US with their families for resettlement.

They are the last of the more than 200 children who had been held at the island’s processing centre when the Coalition won government in 2013.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, claimed on Sunday it was vindication of the Coalition’s hardline border policy.

When he took over as leader at the end of August, there were 109 children in immigration detention on Nauru.

“We have got all the children Labor put in detention centres out, and we have shut down all the detention centres Labor opened, including on Christmas Island,” Morrison said in a joint statement with the immigration minister, David Coleman.

Lawyers and advocates accused Morrison of trying to claim credit for a result his government had fought against, pointing to the #kidsoffnauru campaign launched by a coalition of charities and human rights groups last year.

The campaign tweeted that lawyers had to take the government “kicking and screaming” to court to force some transfers.

☑️ #kidsoffNauru thanks to lawyers who took @ScottMorrisonMP's govt kicking and screaming to court - forcing them to medically evacuate most kids. 🚑 @rightsagenda @GeorgeNewhouse @JulianBurnside

❎ Kids given a safe and permanent home - a chance to just be kids #auspol https://t.co/nfE6XMHauw — kidsoffnauru (@kidsoffnauru) February 2, 2019

George Newhouse, the principal lawyer at the National Justice Project, said his lawyers had to get court intervention for 46 children to be removed from the island.

#BREAKINGNEWS: Our PM is this morning trying to take credit for getting the #kidsoffnauru, when in fact it was the tireless work of lawyers, doctors and caseworkers!



The National Justice Project’s lawyers had to intervene for 46 seriously unwell children https://t.co/11X08NrcAY pic.twitter.com/rVyKvGaVR2 — Prof George Newhouse (@GeorgeNewhouse) February 2, 2019

Kon Karapanagiotidis, head of the asylum seeker resource centre, said the kids were brought off despite the government.

Can MSM report the facts. #KidsOffNauru because of the work of hundreds of organisations & in spite of Morrison Gov. The @ASRC1 last year with our legal & medical partners freed over 200 people from Nauru including nearly 100 kids, all achieved by legal action & court orders. — Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) February 3, 2019

Guardian Australia reported last year the government spent around $750,000 in 15 months on court fees either responding to or challenging legal attempts to get people medically transferred from Nauru.

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, welcomed the news but said it was long overdue for those children.

“They’ve been languishing there for years and years,” he told Sky News’ David Speers Sunday program.

“These are kids that will have years of counselling ahead of them.”

The announcement comes ahead of the resumption of parliament, when Labor and crossbenchers are expected to push a bill that gives doctors more say in whether refugees in offshore detention on Nauru and Manus Island should be moved to the mainland for medical treatment.

However, more than 1,000 asylum seekers remain in these centres and continue to face an uncertain fate.