Iranian stuck 18 years in a Paris airport dies there

Meet Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the Iranian who lived in a Paris airport for 18 years and died there on Saturday. He was the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks.

Nasseri lived in the Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport till the time of his death; news of that is trending on the social media. The man flew into the airport in 1988 and stayed there because he didn’t have the correct papers on him.

News of his death has been taken up by the print and online media and he continued to be throughout the year something of a celebrity on the social media because of his airport status and in 2019 the BBC did a full feature film about the man.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died of natural causes just before midday on Saturday in terminal 2F at Charles de Gaulle airport outside the French capital, an airport official told AFP which carried a full story and added he was caught in an immigration trap as he couldn’t enter France so the airport became his home.

The French news agency says his existence came to the attention of Spielberg who made in 2004 a movie that dealt with the same situation set in New York as Nasseri became known as “Sir Alfred” and his abode was a quarter and bench at the airport.

His is a long story. He flew to Paris after a journey that took him to London, Berlin and Amsterdam. There, the authorities didn’t let him in the and eventually found himself stuck in the  Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport.

Just like in the film he lived on handouts from staff and passengers and although he was given refugee status by the authorities, he continued to live in the airport.