Mehran Karimi Nasseri is a legendary airport resident

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

The name of Mehran Karimi Nasseri (in English Mehran Karimi Nasseri) is known throughout the world, despite the fact that, in fact, this is an ordinary person who has not done anything unique and outstanding. Except for the eighteen years he spent in the building of the Paris airport.

Backstory

Mehran Karimi Nasseri was born in 1942 in Iran. From a young age, Mehran took an active part in upholding certain political views, fearlessly expressed his position and view of the events taking place in Iran. Often he had to deal with rejection of this kind of activity, with attacks from the authorities and other troubles. However, pain and concern for the future of his native country prompted Nasseri to become a participant in the resistance to the current regime again and again.

So, in 1977 he was punished by expulsion from Iran. The reason was his participation in a demonstration against the regime of Shah Mohammed Reza. Mehran tried to defend his rights, but everything ended in failure, and he was forced to leave his native country.

Evil rock or paradoxinternational law?

For several years, Nasseri was forced to wander in an attempt to find asylum in European countries, but everywhere he faced refusals. And yet, in 1981, luck smiled at him - the UN Commission granted him refugee status and allowed him to settle in Belgium. As a result, Mehran Karimi Nasseri had the right to choose any of the UN countries for residence. His choice fell on the UK. According to the norms of the legislation in force at that time, he no longer had the right to return to Belgium, so Mehran realized that there would be no going back. In 1988, he went to France, the next destination was to be Heathrow Airport (England). But bad luck was so fatal that his bag with all the documents was stolen from him in Paris. However, oddly enough, this did not prevent Nasseri from getting on the plane. But airport officials in England did not let him into the country because the lack of documents did not allow him to pass through passport control.

In the end, the plane took him back to Paris, to the famous airport called Charles de Gaulle. But the French also did not allow the Iranian refugee to leave the terminal, since he did not have permission to enter France. As a result, the person found himself without the right to stay anywhere except the terminal of a huge airport.

Life in the terminal

Mehran's lawyers worked hard, and in 1995 he was allowed to return to Belgium, but even 7 years of living in a confined space did not break Mehran's intention to live in the UK, as a result of which herefused this offer.

Life in the airport building was not so bleak. Friendly, tidy and always ready to help, Nasseri quickly fell in love with the terminal staff, and they supported him as best they could. Soon, information about the unique case was leaked to the pages of newspapers and magazines, and streams of journalists poured towards Mehran. All the time spent in the Charles de Gaulle airport building, he willingly communicated with different people, and also studied a huge amount of literature, mainly devoted to economic issues.

Parting up with the airport

It would seem that this amazing person would no longer want to change anything in his life. In 1998, he again refused to leave the terminal building, despite the fact that the lawyers managed to restore his lost documents.

However, in 2006, Mehran Karimi Nasseri fell ill. The diagnosis was uncertain, but the disease required hospitalization. So, Nasseri left the Charles de Gaulle airport for the first time in 18 years. After he was discharged from the hospital, it turned out to be impossible to return to his usual place, and he was given the opportunity to live in one of the shelters near the airport building that had become almost home.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the terminal, and its amazing story have become a legend in France and far beyond. People arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport still often ask questions to the staff of the terminal where Nasseri lived about whether this story is true, and what became of this man.

Spielberg's "Terminal"

In 2004, even before Mehran left the building of Charles de Gaulle, Steven Spielberg's cult film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks was released. Mehran Karimi Nasseri, a biography whose story inspired the famous director, became the prototype of the main character - Viktor Navorsky. The events in the film take place in the United States, in the building of John F. Kennedy Airport and, in fact, are very similar to the story of an Iranian. Victor also became the favorite of all employees and guests of the terminal, he knew within its walls friendship, love, betrayal, as well as the power and rigidity of bureaucratic systems.

The small world in which Hanks' hero found himself by chance looked like a big world, however, unlike the usual free life, where one person cannot change the existing reality, it was in the terminal that Victor Navorsky was able to change life for the better. The amazing drama of a unique person formed the basis of a film that will remind us for many years to come that we can always make the world warmer, sometimes it just needs to narrow its boundaries a little.