A government panel tasked with reviewing the country's foreign trainee program held its first meeting Wednesday to address issues relating to human rights violations.
The panel of 15 members, including academics and the heads of municipal governments, will draw up its final report regarding the foreign technical intern program and the specified skills worker system — the former in particular coming under scrutiny due to accounts of physical abuse and the withholding of pay — around fall 2023.
The cases have sparked criticism at home and abroad that the technical intern program is a means for companies to import cheap labor rather than passing skills to developing nations.