Germany steps up criticism over China’s Xinjiang policies with call for it to ‘meet its international human rights obligations’

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issues warning in wake of publication of documents that ‘highlight workings of mass detention camps’

UN experts have said at least a million Uygurs and others have been held in Xinjiang internment camps, but China says they are ‘vocational training camps’

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Surveillance cameras monitor school children in Akto county in Xinjiang. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:19pm, 26 Nov 2019Updated: 6:19am, 27 Nov 2019

Germany has stepped up its criticism of China’s actions in Xinjiang by calling for international monitors to be given access to the region to assess reports that large numbers of mainly Uygur Muslims are being held in mass detention camps.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made a rare intervention on the topic on Tuesday after a consortium of international journalists published scores of documents that they said had come from the Chinese government.

“China has to grant access to Xinjiang for independent assessments of the human rights situation on the ground,” Maas told a policy forum in Berlin.

“China must meet its international obligations on human rights.”

China has defended its policies there by saying that it is only building “vocational training centres”, not prison camps, and has so far refused to grant foreign diplomats free and unrestricted access to the region.