Johor immigration director-general Ruslin Jusoh said the profit from the e-waste processing and recycling operation could be as high as RM500,000 per month. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: A raid at an electronic waste (e-waste) processing factory in Klang, Selangor on May 16, resulted in 33 foreigners, including two Chinese nationals, being detained by the immigration department.
In a statement, immigration director-general Ruslin Jusoh said the operation was carried out based on public complaints as the factory was believed to have been operating illegally, Bernama reported.
He added that there were also possible elements of human trafficking involved.
According to Ruslin, the factory processed e-waste by dissolving and separating hazardous materials and valuable metals.
“Based on an invoice found, the e-waste received was only in a certain amount of capacity to ensure it can be processed within a week because the process can only be supervised by skilled Chinese nationals,” he said.
He added that to avoid detection, the Chinese nationals would be moved to other factories to conduct the same activities before leaving the country.
Ruslin said the profit from the e-waste processing and recycling operation at a single factory could be as high as RM500,000.
Based on information obtained from the detained foreign nationals, the factory is believed to be registered to a Malaysian but managed by proxy by a Chinese citizen, who is not among those detained.
“We will continue our efforts to trace the factory owner, based on the passport number obtained, and the owner of the property.
Aside from the two Chinese nationals, the other foreign nationals arrested comprise 27 men from Myanmar, two men from Cambodia, and one woman each from Cambodia and Myanmar.
Ruslin said the detained foreigners, aged 19 to 40, have been working and living in the factory for the past four months and did not have travel documents when detained as it is believed these documents were being kept by the factory operator, who is believed to be a Chinese national.
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