KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — A company director was arrested yesterday over his alleged involvement in the exploitation of child labour at a plastic waste recycling factory in Chemor.
Perak police chief Datuk Azizi Mat Aris said that in an operation at 3.30pm, a 16-year-old male Myanmar national suspected to be a victim of human trafficking was successfully rescued, Malay daily Utusan Malaysia reported today.
He said that actions concerning the child were conducted under Section 44 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act (Atipsom) 2007.
“The police detected an activity of forced labour and child labour exploitation involving foreign nationals at the factory,” he was quoted as saying.
“Acting on a tip-off, a raid was conducted on the premises, leading to the arrest of 27 foreign nationals from China and Myanmar aged between 30 and 55,” he said.
According to him, the investigation into the company director will be carried out under Section 14 of Atipsom 2007 for trafficking children for exploitation purposes.
He added that the man also faces charges under Section 55(b) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for employing foreign workers without valid work permits.
“All the arrested foreign workers will be investigated under Section 6(1) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for not possessing valid identification documents and Regulation 39(b) of the Immigration Regulations 1959/63 for misuse of passes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Perak Labour Department director Muhamad Fauzi Abd Ghani said that an inspection of the factory revealed that the employer-provided accommodation was not conducive for workers.
He said the container homes inhabited by the foreign workers also failed to meet the requirements under the Minimum Standards of Housing, Accommodation, and Employee Facilities Act 1990.
“The offences were detected under Section 24D of the same act and Regulation 4 of the Minimum Standards of Housing, Accommodation, and Employee Facilities Regulations (Centralised Accommodation) 2020,” he said.
He added that other offences detected include Section 63(1), Section 25A, and Section 19(1) of the Employment Act 1955.
