PHUKET: A traveller caught using a fake passport told Phuketwan today that the men who posed as an Italian and an Austrian on lost flight MH370 were ''probably Syrians.''

The traveller is one of six young men from Syria and Lebanon who have now been detained in the ''Hospitality'' section at Phuket International Airport for 54 days after their plan to find sanctuary in Sweden went wrong.

The six were arrested by Chinese authorities in Beijing as they attempted to transit to Stockholm and put back on a plane for Phuket, from where their flight originated.

''M,'' at 20 the youngest of the six Phuket detainees and the only one who speaks English, said today: ''So many people are trying to flee Syria that it's highly likely these two men were from Syria. Everybody wants to get out.''

He and his five companions aimed to follow others who had succeeded in taking the escape trail from Thailand via Beijing to Europe but after purchasing six fake Greek passports, their plans went wrong in China.

Beijing was the transit destination for the two men who were impersonating Italian Luigi Maraldi, 37, and Austrian Chritian Kozel, 30, and they appear to have died using those false identities.

''Syria is so bad right now that people are willing to take all kinds of risks to escape,'' said ''M.'' who finds detention at Phuket airport difficult but nothing compared to the hardship of surviving in Damascus, where his family still lives.

He says there is hope for the six, who are all well-educated young men.

''It is difficult living without fresh air for so long,'' he said. ''In many ways, being trapped here is worse than jail because we get no sunshine. But anything is better than the reality of life in Syria.''

Representatives of the UN's UNHCR refugee body met the six for the second time last weekend and are actively seeking a country for resettlement.

But ''M'' continues to complain about the lack of food, heating and general conditions inside their Phuket airport quarters, where occasionally the six are joined by others who come and go quite quickly by comparison.

''We get one real meal a day and live on noodles the rest of the time,'' he said. ''We are constantly hungry. But the UN people gave us hope and they also brought blankets, tea and coffee.''

Conditions inside Syria were ''very devastating'' with the deflation of the currency meaning that people were able to purchase less at US dollar values to sustain life.

''Nobody understands how bad it is to live in Syria right now. We left for so many reasons. The country has simply collapsed, economically, materially and politically.''

He believes hundreds of others will take their chances and buy fake passports if the opportunity arises.

There has been no sign so far of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 or the 239 people who vanished with the aircraft between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.