Brussels (dpa) - The European Union is sanctioning China for human rights abuses against the Uighur people, an EU source told dpa on Monday following an agreement from the bloc's foreign ministers.

The last time the EU imposed punitive measures on Beijing for human rights violations was after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

The names of the targets for measures like EU asset freezes or travel bans are due to be officially published shortly - the final step that implements sanctions.

In the last few years, hundreds of Uighurs, Kazakhs and Huis have testified about being held in internment camps as part of what observers say is a government campaign to forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities.

The Chinese government says the camps - estimated to have held more than 1 million people since 2017 - are "vocational education centres" to eradicate extremism and terrorism.