The statement was presented at a United Nations high-level virtual event on the situation of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang on Wednesday on behalf of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, reports ERR News.

The statement said: "We deplore the widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting ethnic Uighurs and other individuals belonging to minority groups. We raise our deep concerns about the information brought forward in evidence-based reports, including of forced labor, forced use of birth control, sexual abuse and forced sterilizations."

The nations even demanded journalists and other media workers to be allowed to cover the issue "without surveillance, censorship or fear of retribution" and said China should give the UN "unfitted access" to visit the region.