![]() ![]() Īs for what Nasseri did day-to-day 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 was journaling, listening to the radio, and / or smoking his gold pipe, or eating a meal at McDonalds, which was bought for him by strangers, or sitting on a red bench in the Terminal's first level, in a deep reflective trance. When contacted about Nasseri's situation, his family stated that they believed he was living the life he wanted. His refusal to sign the documents was much to the frustration of his lawyer, Bourget. īoth France and Belgium offered Nasseri residency, but he refused to sign the papers as they listed him as being Iranian (rather than British) and did not show his preferred name, "Sir Alfred Mehran". Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended. 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. Īttempts were then made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but the authorities there would do so only if Nasseri presented himself in person. Nasseri's case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget. At the French airport he was unable to prove his identity or refugee status and so was detained at the waiting area for travelers without papers. Arriving in London, he was returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration officials. Others indicate that Nasseri actually mailed his documents to Brussels while on board a ferry to Britain, lying about them being stolen. He was able to travel between the UK and France, but in 1988, his papers were lost when his briefcase was allegedly stolen. However, this claim was disputed, with investigations showing that Nasseri was never expelled from Iran. This allegedly permitted residence in many other European countries. 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. Nasseri's residency site in Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport. 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. However, these claims were never substantiated, and it is most likely that Nasseri's mother was an Iranian homemaker. 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 has also claimed a Swedish mother. His father, Abdelkarim, was an Iranian doctor working for the company which allowed Nasseri to grow up relatively affluently. Nasseri was born in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company settlement located in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. He returned to living at the airport in September 2022, and died there of a heart attack in November 2022. Nasseri's story inspired the 1993 film Lost in Transit and the 2004 film The Terminal. ![]() His autobiography was published as a book, The Terminal Man, in 2004. Mehran Karimi Nasseri ( Persian: مهران کریمی ناصری, pronounced 1945 – 12 November 2022), 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. ![]()
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