Guantanamo hunger strikers prompt Red Cross delegation Mr Warner said: "It leaves them with the prospect of the only way we leave Guantanamo is death... and unfortunate, I think the men are ready to embrace this." The hunger strike was launched at Guantanamo's Camp 6 on February 6, when a "routine" inmate search took place, according to Captain Robert Durand, a prison spokesman. Detainees said guards had inspected their Korans, which they perceived as "religious desecration," he said. Camp 6 houses inmates who pose no particular threat and have no special value in the eyes of US authorities. They include 56 Yemenis who cannot return home because of a moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama after attacks plotted in recent years by al-Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, which has counted former Guantanamo inmates among its ranks. The Red Cross had initially planned to visit individuals detained at the base in April, but had brought the visit forward by a week "in order to better understand the current tensions and the ongoing hunger strike," a spokesman said. The two-member team from the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation includes a doctor. Under the Geneva Conventions governing warfare, the ICRC is the organisation empowered to check on the treatment of prisoners. The White House said it was "closely monitoring" the situation. The Guantanamo facility was opened in 2002 to house prisoners rounded up in the "War on Terror" waged by President George W Bush administration following the 9/11 attacks. Mr Obama moved to close the controversial facility in 2009, but his plans to try suspects in US civilian courts were stymied by Congress.