2/2 © Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab arrives in Downing Street, London 2/2
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will call on Monday for the United Nations to have “urgent and unrestricted” access to Xinjiang to investigate reports of abuses in the Chinese region. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will also mark Britain’s return to the UN Human Rights Council as a voting member by condemning the rights record of council members from China and Russia and raising concerns about Myanmar and Belarus, his office said. On China, Raab will refer to reports of abuses in Xinjiang, including torture, forced labor and the forced sterilization of women. “They are happening on an industrial scale,” he will say, according to his office. “The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or other independent investigative expert, must – and I repeat, must – have urgent and unrestricted access to Xinjiang,” it will say. China has been widely condemned for establishing complexes in Xinjiang that Beijing describes as “vocational training centers” to crack down on extremism and give people new skills. Critics of China have called them concentration camps. The United Nations has said that at least one million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang. Raab will also raise the “shameful” treatment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the crisis in Myanmar and the situation in Belarus. It will explain the steps Britain has taken to address these problems, such as sanctions, and will encourage others to follow them.
