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.