THE US STATE Department plans major changes to a foreign exchange programme that has been exploited by unscrupulous labour brokers and organised criminals in the sex industry, according to an internal memo obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The January 18 memo comes more than a year after an AP investigation uncovered widespread abuses in the J-1 Summer Work Travel programme, which annually allows more than 100,000 foreign college students to work in the US for up to four months. It came from Adam Ereli, assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and was addressed to Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock.

"The reforms we are undertak ...

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