British lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, who returned from visiting clients in Guantánamo last week, claims that at least five people held there were taken to the camp after being arrested, despite being under 18 at the time.
One youth, 14 when detained in October 2001 in Pakistan, is still in US custody three-and-a-half years later.
The youth, known as Muhammad, a Saudi originally from Chad, alleges being subjected to torture, including being suspended by his wrists and burnt with cigarettes.
Mr Stafford-Smith said: "The treatment of adults in Guantánamo Bay is shocking enough. To see a juvenile being held in the worst camp, Camp Five, numbs me.
"He is held in solitary, allowed one hour of recreation a week, and he is not allowed any education or books of any sort.
"He has scars on his arm, he says caused by interrogators burning him with a cigarette, and prisoners are not allowed cigarettes. They have been abusing him on a daily basis.
"International law is clear that you have to treat juveniles differently."
According to papers just declassified by the US military, Muhammad was suspected at one stage of being the brother of former British detainee Feroz Abassi. According to Mr Stafford-Smith, "the passing resemblance is limited solely to the fact that they are both African".
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