"My dream was to arrive in Australia and become a refugee and to find a job," Hussan says of her journey, which ended with the death of 354 of her fellow passengers. The tragedy, one of the largest maritime disasters in Indonesia's history, was the last straw in an escalating boat people crisis.
Shortly afterwards Jakarta said it would host a regional meeting to crack down on the deadly business of people smuggling -- a meeting formally opened Wednesday on the resort island of Bali with 350 delegates from 53 countries.
Fake passports
Hussan's perilous path to safety casts light on the challenges nations face in clamping down on the human cargo trade. Hussan's trip began in December 1998, when she traveled with her husband and son from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, following the U.S. war, to build a new life and find jobs, money and a safer existence.
"From the north of Iraq we traveled across the mountains, went into Iran and decided to go to Australia," she says.
Her husband went before her, flying to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur before heading to Indonesia, where he took a boat to Australia. He stayed in the outback detention center of Woomera for eight months, and now lives in Melbourne, Hussan says. The mother of three followed in his footsteps, accompanied by one of her sons, Amjag. She bought a passport in Iran for $200, something the former Iraqi bank worker says the Iran government knows about.
Mafia
In July 2001, Hussan flew to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with her son, and was greeted at the airport by a group she calls the Iraqi mafia.
"Before I travel I know the names and when I arrive they know me," she says.
