There are syndicates involved in selling genuine passports following the incident where two Iranian tourists were found using stolen passports to board the Malaysian Airlines (MAS) MH370 flight.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said investigation found that the passports of the Iranians, who took a Phuket-Kuala Lumpur Qatar Airways flight to Kuala Lumpur on Feb 28, were genuine.

"We believe they bought or obtained the passport in Phuket, Thailand," he said.

Ahmad Zahid was responding to a supplementary question from Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) who wanted to know about the influx of foreign students and illegal immigrant workers including the two Iranian tourists in the Dewan Rakyat here, Monday.

He said the information was derived from a preliminary investigation conducted by the ministry and the Immigrations Department, but the outcome of the whole investigation would be revealed at the winding up session at the end of the month.

Ahmad Zahid also said the Home Ministry and Immigrations Department would not compromise with any syndicate as it involved the security of the nation.

He said more than 40 million cases of missing passports were reported by Interpol worldwide, and Malaysia also received a spatter from it.

The MH370 flight, with 227 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, went missing an hour after departing the KL International Airport at 12.41am on March 8.

It should have landed in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day.

To another question, Ahmad Zahid also said several language centres were closed, with the cooperation of the Education Ministry, for providing employment to those using student passes.

Ahmad Zahid said 117,833 international student pass holders were active until Dec 31.

He said their entries were based on study offers and also the capabilities of the private institutions of higher learning to handle international students.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said there were 5,217 cases of overstaying, while 57 cases of abuse of passes were handled by the Immigrations Department from 2010 to 2013.