Germany urges 'transparent probe' into Uyghur abuse claims

Germany on Tuesday called for a transparent investigation into "shocking" allegations of rights abuses targeting the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, China, after a media consortium published leaked documents it said catalogued the violations.

In a phone call with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pointed to "the shocking reports and new evidence of very serious human rights violations in Xinjiang", said a German foreign ministry statement.

Several media outlets earlier Tuesday published leaked documents called the Xinjiang Police Files which appear to show thousands of photographs from inside Xinjiang's system of mass incarceration, including many detained Uyghurs.

The youngest was only 15 at the time of her detention, say the reports.

The allegations came as UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet begins her visit to the western region to try to shed light on the plight of the Uyghurs.

Campaigners accuse China's ruling Communist Party of detaining over one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region, part of a years-long crackdown the United States and lawmakers in other Western countries have labelled a "genocide".

China vehemently denies the allegations, calling them the "lie of the century".