GENEVA: Britain's foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Monday denounced torture, forced labour and sterilisations that he said were taking place against Muslim Uighurs on an "industrial scale" in China's Xinjiang region.

Raab, in a recorded speech to the UN Human Rights Council, called for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet or another independent expert to be given "urgent and unfettered access" to the remote western region.

"The situation in Xinjiang is beyond the pale," he told the Geneva forum where China is among the 47 member states.