Putrajaya national registration department (JPN) investigation and enforcement division director Khairu Farhan Saad said the 16 boys and 15 girls were found using identity cards belonging to others, including their relatives, to gain employment.

He said some had dropped out of school when they were just 12, while others, who are still attending school, claimed they were working at the factory during the school holidays.

“The detainees are all aged under 18, with the youngest being just 14 years old,” Bernama reported him as saying today.

Khairu said these minors were among 117 people, including 86 foreign nationals, detained at the factory during a joint operation between JPN and the Johor immigration department.

He said the operation involved 56 JPN enforcement officers from Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka, as well as 30 immigration officers.

Khairu said all 86 foreign nationals, comprising 67 women and 19 men from Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries, were using fraudulent identity documents, believed to have been sourced from agents in their home countries.