Mehran Karimi Nasseri (مهران کریمی ناصری [meɦˈrɔːn kʲæriːˈmiː nɔːseˈriː]), (born 1942), also known as Sir, Alfred Mehran (including the comma), is an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 8 August 1988 until July 2006, when he was hospitalized for an unspecified ailment. His autobiography has been published as a book and he may have been the basis for the movie The Terminal.
Early life
Nasseri was born in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company settlement located in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. His father was an Iranian physician working for the company. Nasseri stated that his mother was a nurse from Scotland working in the same place.[1] He arrived in the United Kingdom in September 1973, to take a three-year course in Yugoslav studies at the University of Bradford
Current position
Nasseri 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 Commission for refugees in Belgium. This permitted residence in any European country.
Having one British parent, he decided to settle in the UK in 1986, but en route to there in 1988, he had his briefcase containing his papers stolen in Paris.[2] Despite this setback, he boarded the plane for London but was promptly returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration. He was initially arrested by the French, but then released as his entry to the airport was legal and he had no country of origin to be returned to and his residency at Terminal 1 began.
His case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget. In 1992, French courts ruled that, having entered the country legally, he could not be expelled from the airport, but it could not grant him permission to enter France.
Attempts were then made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but the authorities there would only do so if Naserri presented himself in person. However, under Belgian law a refugee who voluntarily leaves a country that has accepted him cannot return. In 1995, the Belgian authorities granted permission for him to return, but only if he agreed to live there under supervision of a social worker. Naserri refused this on the ground of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended.[2]
Nasseri's life at the airport ended in July 2006 when he was hospitalized and his sitting place 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 March 6, 2007, he transferred to an Emmaus charity reception centre in Paris's twentieth arrondissement. As of 2008, he continues to live in a Paris shelter.
Life in Terminal 1
During his eighteen year long stay at Terminal 1 in the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Nasseri would have his luggage at his side, and be either reading, writing in his diary, or studying economics.[3] He would receive food and newspapers from employees of the airport
Documentaries and fictionalizations
Nasseri's story provided the inspiration for the 1994 Tombés du ciel French film, starring Jean Rochefort, internationally released under the Lost in Transit title. The short story, The Fifteen-Year Layover by Michael Paterniti and published in GQ and The Best American Non-Required Reading, chronicles Nasseri's existence. Alexis Kouros made a documentary about him, Waiting for Godot at De Gaulle in 2000. Glen Luchford made the Here to Where mockumentary in 2001, also featuring Nasseri.
Nasseri was reportedly the inspiration behind the 2004 movie The Terminal; however, neither publicity materials, nor the DVD "special features" nor the film's website mentions Nasseri's plight as an inspiration for the film. Despite this, in September 2003, The New York Times noted that Steven Spielberg bought the rights to his life story as the basis for The Terminal.[4] The Guardian indicates that Spielberg's Dreamworks production company paid $250,000 to Nasseri for rights to his story and report that as of 2004 he carried a poster advertising Spielberg's film draping his suitcase next to his bench. Nasseri was reportedly excited about The Terminal, but it was unlikely that he would ever have a chance to see it.[1]
Nasseri's story was also the inspiration for the award winning contemporary opera Flight by British composer Jonathan Dove[5].
Merhan Karimi Nasseri has spent 16 years living in Charles de Gaulle airport. Now Steven Spielberg's Terminal has catapulted him to international stardom - but casts little light on who he really is. And Sir Alfred, as he calls himself, isn't too sure either. Paul Berczeller, who spent a year with Nasseri, set out to unravel the mysteryPaul Berczeller The Guardian, Monday 6 September 2004 Merhan Karimi Nasseri: Forever delayed
I first saw him, many years ago now, staring out with an uncanny gaze of blank intensity from the pages of a newspaper. Seated alone on a bench, immune to the endless motion of the airport around him, there was a curious inscrutability to his slight, balding yet dignified countenance. He looked like some unlikely cross between a Zen master and Chaplin's Tramp. He had these amazing long brows, as dark as his hooded eyes, and a small, perfectly groomed moustache perched on top of his upper lip. It was like a caricature of a face, five charcoal marks on a canvas. But strangely noble, too.
The Terminal
Release: 2004
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 128 mins
Directors: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Stanley Tucci, Tom Hanks
His name was Merhan Karimi Nasseri though he called himself "Sir Alfred". He lived in a lost dimension of absurd bureaucratic entanglement. That is to say, on a bench in Terminal One of the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and he had lived there since 1988. For a series of insanely complicated reasons, the Iranian-born refugee was now a man without a country - or any other documented, internationally accepted identity status. Alfred couldn't leave France because he did not have papers; he couldn't enter France because he did not have papers. The authorities told him to wait in the airport lounge while they sorted the paradox out. That he did - for years and years.
Then one day, I heard that Alfred had finally been given his papers. He was free to go anywhere in the world he wished. Except now it seemed he didn't want to leave the airport after all. It was the only home - the only past - he had left.
