Officials on Friday proposed establishing an oversight body to tackle human rights abuses committed against foreigners working in Japan as trainees, as the Abe administration seeks to expand the troubled program to fight growing labor shortages.

Introduced in 1993, the Foreign Training Internship Program has been criticized as being a cover for employing low-cost laborers from less developed countries. There have been reports of harsh working conditions, low wages and rights abuses such as trainees being confined, banned from contacting others or forced to return to their home countries.

The program supervisory body would be empowered to search domestic organizations that place trainees and companies that employ them, the administration said in a report compiled by a panel of experts.