Bernama reported immigration director-general Ruslin Jusoh as saying in a statement that the operation was carried out based on public complaints that the factory was apparently operating illegally.

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 was only received in certain amounts to ensure it could be processed within a week, because the process can only be supervised by skilled Chinese nationals,” he said.

He said that the short timeframe was to avoid detection, as the Chinese nationals would be moved to other factories to conduct the same activities before leaving the country.

Ruslin said the profit from e-waste processing and recycling 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, had been working and living in the factory for the past four months and did not have travel documents when detained, with the documents apparently being kept by the factory operator.