Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived for 18 years in Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and whose intriguing story impressed the 2004 Steven Spielberg movie “The Terminal,” died on Saturday in that very same airport.
The reason for loss of life, in Terminal 2F at about midday, was a coronary heart assault, a consultant for the airport mentioned in a press release. His precise age was not instantly identified, however he was in his late 70s.
Mr. Nasseri’s attachment to the airport lasted till his closing days. He had been staying at a nursing residence this 12 months, however returned to the airport in mid-September “to reside as a homeless particular person within the public house of the airport,” the consultant mentioned.
Together with his trimmed mustache and delicate voice, Mr. Nasseri grew to become a peculiar fixture in Terminal 1 of the airport as he hauled piles of his belongings, stacked neatly on a baggage cart. He resided within the airport from 1988 to 2006, initially due to authorized hurdles to show his refugee standing, and later by alternative.
He lived between a pizzeria and an electronics retailer, planting himself on a crimson plastic bench that he made his residence. On a espresso desk, he had a hand mirror; an electrical shaver, which he used each morning; and a set of press clippings that advised of his standing as an odd determine in France.
His days had been punctuated by the rhythm of flights and the presence of vacationers, whose numbers swelled within the morning and dwindled at evening, leaving him principally alone to sleep on his most well-liked curved bench. Airport workers would normally give him their meal coupons, and flight attendants would give him toiletries left over by first-class passengers.
The New York Instances Journal famous in a 2003 profile of Mr. Nasseri that he appeared “each settled — and able to go.”
“I understand I’m well-known,” Mr. Nasseri mentioned in that article. “I wasn’t attention-grabbing till I got here right here.”
His story grew to become a weird story in immigration historical past, and a few particulars about his background proved tough to pin down due to his altering claims about his origins. (In the identical article, he denied that he was Iranian and deflected questions on his childhood in Tehran.)
Airport officers mentioned that they had confirmed that Mr. Nasseri was born in Iran, within the city of Masjid-i-Sulaiman, in 1945.
Early on, he mentioned he was expelled from his homeland for antigovernment exercise in 1977 as a result of, as a pupil in England, he had protested in opposition to the federal government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. When he returned to Iran, he discovered himself imprisoned and shortly exiled, he mentioned.
He bounced round Europe for a couple of years with momentary refugee papers earlier than arriving in Belgium, the place he was given official refugee standing in 1981. Mr. Nasseri traveled to Britain and France with out issue till 1988, when he arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport with a one-way ticket to London, a couple of garments, about $500 and no passport.
He advised the airport authorities that his papers had been stolen at a Paris practice station. Waiving the same old guidelines, the authorities let him fly to Heathrow Airport in London. However there, British immigration officers refused to let him enter the nation, and he was returned to Charles de Gaulle.
Mr. Nasseri couldn’t show who he was or supply proof of his refugee standing, so he moved right into a holding space within the airport for vacationers with out papers.
He was there for days, after which weeks and months. Because the months become years, Mr. Nasseri grew to become trapped in a authorized twilight zone. Within the Nineties, the French authorities insisted that he was on French soil illegally, however they might not deport him as a result of no nation would settle for him.
In 1999, he received permission to depart the airport and go wherever he wished in Europe. However he didn’t wish to go wherever, the airport’s medical director advised The Instances that 12 months, as a result of he was “scared to depart this bubble world” that he had been dwelling in.
“Lastly getting the papers has been an enormous shock to him, as if he was simply thrown from his horse,” mentioned Dr. Philippe Discount, the airport’s medical director. “Once you wait 11 years for one thing and abruptly in a couple of minutes you signal some papers and it’s executed — think about what a shock that’s.”
He had made a house at Charles de Gaulle: Airport workers would name him Alfred or Sir, Alfred — a nickname rooted in a mistake that appeared in a letter from British immigration officers. He would wash up within the passenger bogs and take his garments to the cleaner on the airport.
As his story unfold all through French information media after which to shops internationally, reporters seen the passion with which Mr. Nasseri would communicate concerning the airport.
His residence there appeared to depend upon the kindness of strangers. Individuals who heard his story despatched him cash within the mail. A traveler as soon as gave him a sleeping bag and a tenting mattress.
Within the Spielberg movie, Tom Hanks performs a refugee who’s rendered stateless and turns into caught in New York at Kennedy Airport after a army coup in his fictional homeland.
Charles de Gaulle Airport mentioned in its assertion on Sunday that its total employees and neighborhood had cared for Mr. Nasseri “as a lot as doable for a few years.”
However the airport famous that “we might have most well-liked that he discover a actual shelter, as he was affected by psychological issues.”
Nonetheless, it appeared that Mr. Nasseri was content material along with his environment, dwelling inside a spot related to each freedom and frustration.
“The airport will not be unhealthy,” he advised The Instances in 1999. “It is vitally lively and capabilities daily. I see totally different passengers each week from all around the world.”
Christine Chung contributed reporting.