Fadi Sujaa speaks English fluently, but the words dry up in his throat as he tries to describe his emotions as he crouched below deck on his voyage across the Mediterranean.

I had no choice. It was not safe for me in Libya or Syria

“‘Scared’ is too small a word,” he says as he looks down at the floor.

For one day and one night, Mr Sujaa and 19 other asylum seekers shared a dark, suffocating space just one metre high on a fishing boat that departed from Libya.

“There was a strong smell of diesel and no water or fresh air. We could not see anything and we could not stand up,” says the 29-year-old Syrian.

Mr Sujaa recounted his experience to The Sunday Times of Malta on World Refugee Day, which is celebrated annually on June 20.

In the dead of night and the middle of the sea, Mr Sujaa describes how they were moved onto a bigger boat, which he is convinced was Maltese owned.

They were again ushered below deck among the diesel tanks and continued on their way to Europe.

Mr Sujaa paid €3,500 to be smuggled across the Mediterranean. He says he had no choice.

The qualified medical technologist left his home province of Alswaydaa in May 2012 with the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad showing no signs of abating. If he stayed he faced being called up for national service, something he had previously avoided as he had lived on-off in Libya for several years.

Mr Sujaa returned to Libya with the dream of studying a Masters degree, but found the country in chaos following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

“Even the children do their talking with guns in Libya these days.”

With security, jobs and study opportunities severely lacking, he made up his mind to flee to Europe.

Arriving in the Kordin area known as Ras-il-Ħanzir last March, the migrants were instructed to remain below deck for an hour before disembarking.

But at around 11.30pm they were found by police and taken to headquarters in Floriana.

Smart, artciulate and affable, Mr Sujaa spoke of the shame he felt when he was placed in handcuffs.

“I felt everyone was judging me as a criminal. I know I arrived here illegally but I had no choice. It was not safe for me in Libya or Syria,” he said.

After two days he was moved to Lyster Barracks detention centre, where he helped organise English lessons and cleaning rotas for his fellow detainees.

His biggest fear then was that his application for humanitarian protection would be rejected.

If faced with the choice of returning to his homeland and being sent straight to the front line in the civil war, or being sent back to Libya, Mr Sujaa said he would have chosen Syria.

“At least I know what would happen in Syria. In Libya they could send me to jail and there would be no one to help me and no one would even know I’m there. There is no system in Libya,” he said.

Thankfully he was granted subsidary protection and released from detention after a month, helped by the fact that he had travelled with identity documents.

Despite his high-level of education, Mr Sujaa currently works for €30 a day doing back-breaking labour on construction sites and rents a small flat in San Gwann with a fellow Syrian.

But at least he is safe.

“I thank the Maltese people for offering me protection.

They should not be scared of Syrians. They should think of us as visitors who will return home as soon as possible,” he said.