Tells her son for the first time about the horror journey – was only two years old

5/1/2023, 8:43:29 PM

Highlights: Two-year-old Ziad Bawil was one of 391 refugees who fled to Sweden from Iraq in 1993. He and his family spent a week in the hold of a boat in the Baltic Sea. He tells his story in the first episode of a new documentary series on SVT1, Sunday at 22:00. For more information on the series, visit www.svt1.com/sv-1/sV-1-sV2/sSV-2-sv2.

A scarf would protect her two-year-old son from seeing his parents drown in the sea between Riga and Gotland. 30 years later, mother Payman Mergasori decides to tell her son what their last days on the run looked like.

Then 22-year-old Payman Mergasori and her family are Kurds who fled Iraq. They were some of the 391 refugees who came to Sweden on the boat Priekule in 1993 from Riga. After a week on the Baltic Sea in a heavy storm, she testifies to a near-death experience.

"Imagine if we hadn't made it? I wouldn't be sitting here then. Neither is Ziad, who is now 32 years old, says Payman Mergasori in SVT's documentary series "Smugglad".

Could have ended in disaster

When the boat docked in Slite on Gotland, Ziad Bawil was only two years old. He had not realized until now that he and the other refugees hiding in the hold of the boat had cheated death.

"I knew I had been through something like this, but I was only two years old. It has not been immediately realized, says Ziad Bawil.

Watch the first episode of the documentary series Smuggglad on SVT Play, or coming Sundays at 22:00 on SVT1.