Mehran Karimi Nasseri
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, also known as Sir, Alfred Mehran, was an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal 1 in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 26 August 1988 until July 2006, when he was hospitalized. His autobiography was published as a book, The Terminal Man, in 2004. Nasseri's story inspired the 1993 film Lost in Transit and the 2004 film The Terminal. He returned to living at the airport in September 2022, and died there of a heart attack in November 2022.
Early life
Nasseri was born in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company settlement located in Masjed Soleyman, Iran. His father, Abdelkarim, was an Iranian doctor working for the company which allowed Nasseri to grow up relatively affluently. Nasseri has claimed that he was the result of an illegitimate affair, and that his mother was a nurse from Scotland working in the same place but had also claimed a Swedish mother. However, these claims were never substantiated, and it is most likely that Nasseri's mother was an Iranian homemaker. Aged 28, he arrived in the United Kingdom in September 1973, to take a three-year course in Yugoslav studies at the University of Bradford.Life in Terminal 1
Nasseri alleged that he was expelled from Iran in 1977 for protests against the Shah and after a long battle, involving applications in several countries, was awarded refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium. This allegedly permitted residence in many other European countries. However, this claim was disputed, with investigations showing that Nasseri was never expelled from Iran.He was able to travel between the United Kingdom and France, but in 1988, his papers were lost when his briefcase was allegedly stolen. Others indicate that Nasseri actually mailed his documents to Brussels while on board a ferry to Britain, lying about them being stolen. Arriving in London, he was returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration officials. At the French airport, he was unable to prove his identity or refugee status and was detained in the waiting area for travellers without papers.
Nasseri's case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget.
Attempts were then made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but the authorities there would do so only if Nasseri presented himself in person. In 1995, the Belgian authorities granted permission for him to travel to Belgium, but only if he agreed to live there under the supervision of a social worker. Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended.
Both France and Belgium offered Nasseri residency, but he refused to sign the papers as they listed him as being Iranian and did not show his preferred name, Alfred Mehran". His refusal to sign the documents was much to the frustration of his lawyer, Bourget. When contacted about Nasseri's situation, his family stated that they believed he was living the life he wanted.
During his long stay at Terminal 1 in the Charles de Gaulle Airport, he could be found, day or night, around the Paris Bye Bye bar, where he wrote in his journal, listened to the radio, and smoked his gold pipe, or ate a meal at McDonald's. The meals were bought for him by strangers, and he sometimes sat on a red bench in the Terminal's first level in a reflective trance. In other accounts, his luggage was always by his side, as he wrote in his diary or studied economics.
In 2003, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks production company paid a rumoured US$275,000 to Nasseri for the rights to his story, but ultimately did not use his story in the film The Terminal.
Nasseri's 18-year stay at the airport ended in July 2006 when he was hospitalized and his sitting place was dismantled. Towards the end of January 2007, he left the hospital and was looked after by the airport's branch of the French Red Cross; he was lodged for a few weeks in a hotel close to the airport. On 6 March 2007, he was transferred to an Emmaus charity reception centre in Paris's 20th arrondissement. From 2008 onwards, he lived in a Paris shelter, though in the wake of Nasseri's death in 2022, the Associated Press reported that he had recently returned to live at the airport.