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In the documentary 'On The Bride's Side', five Syrians and Palestinians flee conflict to find themselves in Italy, one of them a survivor of the 2013 Lampedusa shipwreck.

More than 300 people died in the incident, and nearly 200 victims of the wreck have yet to be officially identified. English literature student Abdallah Sallam was one of 155 people who survived the tragedy.

The first stop for many of the survivors of Lampedusa ends up being Milan Central Station.

A fortuitous meeting at the train station results in an unusual conversation and lifelong friendship between Abdallah and a group of three writers and poets living in Italy.

"These people they come to make a new life, running from the war, leaving everything behind them and come to look for safety place and the new life."

Palestian-Syrian poet Khaled Solaiman al-Nassiry remembers the meeting vividly. At the time he was with two close friends and artistic collaborators, writer Gabriele Del Grande and poet-translator Tareq al Jabr.

“A guy he comes to us and he asks us [in Arabic]: ‘Guys, do you know where I can catch the train that goes to Sweden?’ You laugh because there is no direct train to Sweden from Milan,” Khaled recalls.

Picture by bridesmaid dresses perth

Crew involved in making the documentary, 'On the Bride’s Side'.

“We are directly asking: ‘Are you Syrian?’ He said yes, Syrian Palestinian, like me exactly. So we invite him to have coffee. And he tells us our story and it was really strong and sad.

“All these people dying in the sea and you meet a person who has just survived from a boat. He saw 200 persons die in the sea. So when he tells you this story, you feel very sad and heavy.”

Finding out Abdullah’s quest to leave behind a life lived in limbo and seek political asylum in Sweden, Khaled Solaiman al-Nassiry felt compelled to help.

“Sweden was the most famous country which helped refugees,” he says. “They have a good system to help the immigrants. They host them. They help them to study to study the language. It was the most strong system in Europe for immigrants.

“So the people they have this idea about Sweden, all of them they go. Even if there is other countries in Europe, maybe that give the same things but just because Sweden was the most famous one at that time [two years ago].”

'A new life'

And then over 15 days the plan for a fake wedding party was hatched. A group of 23 people were assembled to play the parts and make it look legitimate.

“We just did it because we want to do something to help these people. So first we think about tourist people, especially Japanese because they are famous with a camera. They take a lot of photos so you cannot see their faces with the camera. And then we thought of nuns because Italy has the Vatican.

“But then we think about the wedding party, this idea was good because it made sense. Wedding means new life, the bride in English is something white, something clean to start a new life.

“And these people they come to make a new life, running from the war, leaving everything behind them and come to look for safety place and the new life. Not just a safety place that means they’re not going to die. But they need also a new life actually.”

The journey would take them by foot through a mountain path into France that was once used by Italians fleeing fascism.

'I thought we were finished'

And there were close calls when the ruse almost came undone.

“The most difficult moment was when we were in Central Station in Copenhagen. We were really lucky actually. It worked. I don’t know how.

“Two policeman they come to us in Copenhagen Central Station. I thought: 'we're finished'. But one of them studied the Italian language and he just comes to us to say congratulations in Italian. So he laughed with us and we had a drink together. And he never asked anything about us.”

For helping to engineer the plan of the fake wedding party to smuggle the asylum seekers to Sweden, Khaled faced the prospect of a 15 year jail term for assisting in irregular migration.

It was a scenario that did strike fear in Khaled’s heart.

“Gabriele has a child and Antonio has a child. I was expecting a child during that period. We know that we’re doing something illegal, so we’re afraid for sure. But at the same time we are sure about what we are doing because we feel.

“We believe that what we are doing, it’s not illegal. It’s just we’re helping these people because we feel that we need to do it. So let’s say we are ready to fight for this. And we’re not going to believe in any law coming to tell us because you help people who need help, you’re going to jail.”

A real people smuggler?

Khaled says he sees a difference between what he did in assisting the group of five asylum seekers and the acts of people trafficking carried out by smugglers.

“Smugglers they are the worst people in the world," he says.

"They don’t have anything to do with humanity. We saw it in Milan. They just use this need of people who arrive to take their money. Believe I meet this family with the most strong story I never seen in my whole life.

“They take the family – father, mother with two children – take them from Milan; and they take the money from them and they make them walk. And then they leave them in the mountains, one hour from Milan. And they told them it was Sweden. And they use the background that Sweden is snow. Good luck for them there were people to help them back, but if not they would die.”

Despite the temptation to abort the plan during the journey, one thing kept Khaled going.

“You know what we need? We need to take with other people. We have this image about immigrants they are coming from the outside.

“We think they’re taking our job, our places and everything. And there are Muslims and maybe they’re ISIS. We just need to talk with them. If you talk with them you will change your knowledge about things.”

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