U.N. rights rapporteur says end foreign trainee program 'slavery' | The Japan Times Online

A visiting U.N. expert on the rights of migrants urged the government Wednesday to terminate its industrial trainee and technical intern program for workers from overseas, saying it may amount to "slavery" in some cases, fueling demand for exploitative cheap labor in possible violation of human rights. "This program should be discontinued and replaced by an employment program," Jorge Bustamante, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights of migrants, told reporters at the U.N. Information Center in Tokyo.