More than 20 former prisoners at a US detention centre in Afghanistan have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs, according to a BBC report.

The BBC interviewed 27 people who were held at the Bagram military base between 2002 and 2008. None of them was ever charged or tried.

The former inmates made repeated allegations of ill-treatment, saying they were subjected to physical abuse, excessive temperatures and loud noise, forced into stress positions and ordered to undress in front of female soldiers. Four detainees claim they were threatened with death at gunpoint.

"They did things that you would not do against animals, let alone to humans," said one inmate. "They poured cold water on you in winter and hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death. They put some kind of medicine in the juice or water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you."

The BBC's allegations were put to the Pentagon, which denied them and insisted that all Bagram inmates were treated humanely.

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright, a spokesman for the US secretary of defence, said conditions on the base met "international standards for care and custody". He said the defence department's policy was to treat detainees humanely.

In an apparent allusion to the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal in Iraq, he said: "There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not followed, and service members have been held accountable for their actions in those cases."

Thousands of people have been held in Bagram since the start of US operations in Afghanistan eight years ago, and a new detention facility is being built there. Some of Bagram's detainees – who include Pakistanis and at least two Britons – are forcibly taken there from abroad.

Barack Obama has banned the use of torture, set up a review of how detainees are treated and ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison. But his actions may mean little to those held in Bagram. Inmates in the Afghan base do not have access to lawyers and cannot challenge their detention.

Tina Foster, of the International Justice Network, which represents four Bagram prisoners, told the BBC that its inmates were being held in "a legal black hole, without access to lawyers or courts". Foster is trying to ensure that detainees at Bagram are granted the same rights as those still held at Guantánamo, but the White House is opposing her efforts.

Eleven US soldiers were convicted over Abu Ghraib after graphic photographs shown around the world highlighted the abuse of inmates.