![]() He lived on the outside for several years in a hostel. He was finally forced to in 2006 to be hospitalized. Despite eventually getting refugee status in France, Nasseri never wanted to leave the airport. He was the first citizen of Charles de Gaulle Airport. He was treated by airport doctor Philippe Bargain.īEARDSLEY: "Very quickly, he had a network of people around him who liked him and helped him," said Bargain. Surrounded by his possessions on an airport couch, he did interviews with the media and received mail from passengers hoping to meet him on a layover. Airport workers fondly called him Sir Alfred. I am unique immigration case.īEARDSLEY: Nasseri became a well-known figure. MEHRAN KARIMI NASSERI: I think nobody can live 11 years in such a situation. But in 1988, France allowed Nasseri to stay as long as he remained in the airport. He was expelled from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, too. But after Iranian officials stripped him of his passport and he had no other identity papers, he was unable to stay in Britain. At the age of 43, he left for Britain to try to find her. Nasseri was born in 1945 from a brief liaison between an Iranian father and a British mother who never acknowledged him. TOM HANKS: (As Viktor Navorski) No, I am delayed a long time.ĬHANTAL KREVIAZUK: (Singing) 'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane.īEARDSLEY: But the real life of Mehran Karimi Nasseri was not as happy as the Hollywood version. (SOUNDBITE OF LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF DOVE'S "FLIGHT, ACT III: A PLANE IS COMING!")ĮLEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: For a man who never reached his final destination, he inspired a lot of art - an opera, a book and two movies, including Steven Spielberg's 2004 film "The Terminal," starring Tom Hanks.ĬATHERINE ZETA-JONES: (As Amelia Warren) Are you headed for home? He died over the weekend at the age of 77. Mehran Karimi Nasseri was an Iranian national who lived at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years. The second and arguably more well-known take on this story is Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal, with Tom Hanks in the lead role as someone who is denied entry into the United States while his country experiences a military coup.He may have been the world's most famous homeless person. The first is the French film Lost in Transit starring Jean Rochefort, which sees a man losing his passport in an airport terminal and meeting other passengers who are in the same predicament as him. ![]() ![]() While there have been other instances of airport dwellers occurring across the globe, Nasseri’s story is arguably the most well-known, as he served as the inspiration for numerous articles, documentaries, and even films. Soon after he was discharged, he went back to Charles de Gaulle Airport and lived there until he died of a heart attack on November 12, 2022.Ī somewhat profound and fitting end for the refugee who made the airport his humble abode, Nasseri earlier released an autobiography called The Terminal Man, which was co-authored by British author Andrew Donkin. Nasseri was taken to hospital in 2006, which ended his almost two-decade-long stay at the airport. ![]() No matter the time of day, Nasseri could be seen around Terminal 1 with his luggage by his side. With nowhere else to go, Nasseri soon became a permanent fixture at the airport, with travellers reportedly seeing the refugee eating at McDonalds, meditating on a bench, journaling, and listening to the radio. From Auguntil July 2006, Nasseri spent his days at Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle Airport.Īlso known as Sir Alfred Mehran, Nasseri became a stateless person in 1977 who, after journeying across Europe, found himself detained at the Charles de Gaulle Airport for travelling without proper papers. Such was the case with Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who spent 18 years living at an airport in Paris, France. ![]()
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