Red Cross sends delegation to Guantanamo prison a week early

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has sent a delegation to the United States’ infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba a week earlier than planned as concerns over a hunger strike grows.

According to a statement released by the ICRC spokesman, Simon Schorno, on Tuesday, about a dozen ICRC representatives, including a doctor were sent to the notorious US jail.

According to reports, the hunger strike by prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has entered its 50th day. The US military says 31 of the detainees at the prison are on hunger strike.

Prison officials have said that three detainees have been hospitalized for dehydration while 11 are being force-fed to prevent dangerous weight loss.

Guantanamo prisoners began the strike on February 6, after the Gitmo staff reportedly seized the personal belongings of the inmates, including letters, photographs and copies of the Holy Qur’an in a sacrilegious manner during searches of their cells.

The United States holds about 166 men at the prison. A mass hunger strike involved many of the prisoners in the summer of 2005, but the protest dwindled after the military began tying people down and force-feeding them liquid nutrients through tubes to prevent them from starving to death.