"No they cannot have been Africans, not the Italian one anyway, as he is white skinned and Malaysian airlines said the passengers who boarded checked out for the photos. May not have been a good match but likely to spot an African travelling on a Caucasian passport.... "
There are Africans with Italian Passports and older non-Biometric Passports can be doctored, including a change of photograph. And in fairness KUL is quite good at this stuff. My wife and I recently transited KUL connecting to an MH A380 flight to LHR. We both have British Passports and, whilst I am obviously Caucasian, my wife is of Asian descent. Despite the fact we were travelling together in First Class, my wife was stopped at security for about 10 minutes because, although her face matched her picture in the Passport, she did not "Look British" (Whatever that means these days). I did pose that question but always go along with all security procedures without complaint. I thought that was very impressive security