Merhan Karimi Nasseri
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Mehran Karimi Nasseri, also known as Sir, Alfred Mehran, is an Iranian refugee who has been living in the departure lounge of terminal one in Charles de Gaulle Airport since August 8, 1988.
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Introduction
Nasseri was born in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company settlement located in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. His father was an Iranian doctor working for the company; his mother was an English nurse working in the same place. He arrived in the United Kingdom in September, 1973 to take a three year course in Yugoslav studies at Bradford University.
Protests
While in the United Kingdom Nasseri was a participant in protests against Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran in March, 1974. He returned to Iran in August 7, 1975 after money for university fees had unexpectedly been halted. On arrival at Tehran airport, he was taken directly to Evin prison by the Iranian secret police, SAVAK. He was later imprisoned and tortured for four months before being expelled from the country.
Wandering through Europe alone
Returning to Europe he applied for asylum in Berlin, West Germany and the Netherlands in 1977 but was rejected. Then in 1978, he applied in France but was rejected again, he later lost an appeal, the same thing happened in Yugoslavia. In 1979, he applied in Italy but it was unsuccessful, he tried France again in 1980 and lodged an appeal again after it was rejected, the appeal itself was later rejected. His application to emigrate to the United Kingdom was rejected and he was not allowed to enter the country at Heathrow airport. Nasseri was expelled from the United Kingdom, so he tried to enter West Germany again but he was expelled to the Belgian border before Belgium accepted him.
On October 7, 1980, his request for asylum was granted by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Belgium. Nasseri lived in Belgium until 1986, when he decided to move to the United Kingdom. He claimed that he was mugged and his shoulder bag stolen while waiting at the RER platform to go to Charles de Gaulle Airport to take a flight to Heathrow airport. Nasseri managed to board the plane but when he arrived at Heathrow without the necessary documentation, Heathrow officials sent him back to Charles de Gaulle. Nasseri was unable to prove his identity or his refugee status to the French officials and so he was moved to the Zone d'attente (waiting zone), a holding area for travellers without papers.
The fight for papers
His case was taken up by human rights lawyer Christian Bourget and in 1992 a French court ruled that Nasseri could not be expelled from France as he had legally entered the country as a refugee. However the court couldn't force the French government to give Nasseri refugee status or a transit visa and so Nasseri continued to remain in limbo within the confines of the airport terminal building.
Bourget now approached Belgian government in an attempt to get them to re-issue Nasseri's original refugee documents. However, the Belgian refugee officials refused to mail them to him in France, stating that Nasseri must instead present himself in person so that they could identify him as the same man to whom they had issued the original refugee documents. Under Belgian law, a refugee who voluntarily leaves the country is not allowed to return and so, in something of a contradiction, the Belgian government refused to allow Nasseri to travel back to Belgium to claim his identity. In 1995, the Belgian government partially relented and told Nasseri that he could retrieve his refugee documents if he agreed to live in Belgium under the supervision of a social worker. Nasseri refused, stating that he didn't want to live in Belgium, but wanted to live in the United Kingdom.
In 1999, the French Government granted Nasseri a temporary residency permit and a refugee's passport, giving him the opportunity to live in France and finally leave the airport. However, Nasseri refused to sign the necessary papers claiming that they did not identify him correctly. His refusal to sign was perhaps an indication of his failing mental health as he had begun to deny that he was Iranian and claimed not to be able to speak Persian. He had also begun to call himself "Sir, Alfred" (sic). At some point in the past he had received a letter from the British authorities which had begun "Sir, Alfred..." and since then he has stated that this (including the comma) is his official name.
Over the years Nasseri has become accustomed to his life in the airport terminal. He keeps himself clean and rises at 5 a.m. every morning (approximately the time when the airport starts to welcome passengers in for the early flights) to wash in the public toilets. The airport staff sometimes wash his clothes for him, and have donated a sofa for his use. He spends most of the day listening to the radio, reading books and writing his diary. This diary has been turned into an autobiography The Terminal Man (ISBN 0552152749) in collaboration with Andrew Donkin, a ghostwriter.
Fictionalizations of Nasseri
His story provided the inspiration for a French language film in 1993 starring Jean Rochefort and called Tombés du ciel [1] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108359/) (released under the title Lost in Transit for international audiences). He was reportedly the inspiration behind the 2004 movie The Terminal, however, no publicity materials, the DVD "special features" or the film's website ever mention Nasseri's plight as an inspiration for the film. In fact the DVD implies that the story was so "incredible" that it leaves the viewer with the impression that the story was solely a result of the screenwriters imagination.
Despite this, reports including one in The Guardian [2] (http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1298104,00.html) indicate that Spielberg's Dreamworks production company paid $250,000 to Nasseri for rights to his story, and report that as of 2004 he carried a poster advertising Spielberg's film which hangs from his suitcase next to his bench. Nasseri was reportedly excited about The Terminal, but it was unlikely that he would ever have a chance to see it. "Yes, my interest in America has gone up because of movie," Nasseri was reported to have said. "That is very good."
Unlike Tom Hanks' character in the movie, and since at least 1994, Nasseri does not live in the duty-free transit area, but simply in the departure hall, in the circular boutiques and restaurants passage on the lowest floor. He can at least theoretically leave the terminal at any moment, although, since everyone knows him, his departure might not remain unnoticed. He does not seem to speak with anyone normally; with his cart and bags he almost looks like a traveler, so people either do not notice him or ignore him as if he were a homeless person.
The publicity surrounding the movie did not change Nasseri's position. As of April 17, 2005 he was still at Roissy 1, surrounded by a huge amount of boxes (in rather bad shape), next to the "Relay" shop where his book can be bought. He lacks a front tooth.
External links
- Article on snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/airport.htm)
- "Has a guy been stuck in the Paris airport since 1988 for lack of the right papers?" (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990820.html) - The Straight Dope, August 20, 1999
- Article about Nasseri and the film (http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1298104,00.html) in the UK The Guardian.de:Merhan Karimi Nasseri