In an open letter to President Barack Obama published Tuesday , dozens of doctors asked to be allowed to treat hunger-striking prisoners at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . For four months , many detainees at Guantanamo have been on a hunger strike , protesting their detention at the facility . `` It is clear that they do not trust their military doctors , '' the more than 150 doctors and other medical professionals wrote in an open letter published online by The Lancet medical journal . `` They have very good reason for this , as you should know , from the current protocols of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo , which those doctors are ordered to follow . '' In May , 13 detainees wrote an open letter in the UK-based Guardian newspaper asking to see civilian doctors because they said they did not trust the military doctors whom they accused of force-feeding them against their will . In their letter to Obama , the doctors and medical professionals said : `` The orders they receive are ultimately your orders as their Commander-in-Chief . Without trust , safe and acceptable medical care of mentally competent patients is impossible . Since the detainees do not trust their military doctors , they are unlikely to comply with current medical advice . '' Of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo , 104 are on a hunger strike to protest their treatment an indefinite detention , according to Capt . Robert Durand , a spokesman for the detention facility . Forty-four of the detainees have received `` enteral feeding , '' where a tube is inserted through the nose and down the throat to administer liquids , military officials said . The detainee protest began last year , with five to six detainees starting and stopping hunger strikes . But the number grew after lawyers for some of those held drew attention to conditions at the facility , Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale , a spokesman on detainee issues at the Pentagon , said earlier this year . Human rights groups have long protested the detention of suspected enemy fighters who have n't been charged with crimes . The government says the detainees are too dangerous to transfer but can not be tried , characterizing them as war prisoners under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Act . Obama has recently renewed his vow to shut the prison established last decade to house suspected terrorists . The open letter from the doctors came a day after the federal government was forced to release the names of dozens of detainees at the military prison after a newspaper sued the federal government for the information . The list released Monday identifies 46 inmates being held for `` continued detention '' at the facility . The report was made public after a lawsuit by the Miami Herald . The Obama administration first acknowledged that detainees were being held indefinitely in Guantanamo in 2010 but did n't make their identities public until now . Of the 46 detainees listed for indefinite detention , the report shows that 26 are from Yemen , 10 are from Afghanistan , three are from Saudi Arabia , two each are from Libya and Kuwait , and one each are from Kenya , Somalia and Morocco .
The Lancet medical journal published the open letter on Tuesday . The letter is signed by more than 100 doctors and medical professionals . They are asking the government to allow them to treat the hunger - striking detainees . Thirteen detainees wrote an open letter in July calling for civilian treatment .