GENEVA (Reuters) - A U.N. human rights panel said on Friday that it had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China are held in what resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy.

Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, cited estimates that 2 million Uighurs and Muslim minorities were forced into political camps for indoctrination in the western Xinjiang autonomous region.

We are deeply concerned at the many numerous and credible reports that we have received that in the name of combating religious extremism and maintaining social stability (China) has changed the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internship camp that is shrouded in secrecy, a sort of no rights zone, she told the start of a two-day regular review of Chinas record, including Hong Kong and Macao.