Forever in transit - 21st December 2022

The Iranian man who got stuck in an immigration trap for 18 years in an airport terminal in Paris, has passed away. The Hollywood produced film 'The Terminal', directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks was based on Mehran Kamini Nasseri's ordeal at Charles de Gaulle airport.

Having sought political asylum in 1988 in Britain, only to be turned back by British immigration, Nasseri found himself in a legal twilight zone not being able to furnish the appropriate legal documents, leaving him stuck in the Parisian airport.

Airport staff played an integral role in ensuring Nasseri got food, medical supplies, books and a radio. He relied on the airport for support, having requisitioned his spot in Terminal 2F with a plastic bench being the centre of his domain. He took to the name 'King Alfred' and soon became an international cause célèbre.

King Alfred's ordeal caught the eyes of authors and film producers, the likes of Steven Spielberg, resulting in him directing and producing the 2004 film The Terminal, in which Tom Hanks played Nasseri. Though Nasseri's story didn't end up as the main plot, it's reported that he was offered a sum of $275,000 for his story.

Eventually being granted refugee status and the right to remain in France in 1999, Nasseri's lawyers disclosed that he was apprehensive about leaving his established Terminal 2F domain.

Due to his hospitalisation in 2006, Nasseri had to finally leave the airport, bringing an end to King Alfred's tiny kingdom. However, in September 2022, a short while before he succumbed to cardiac arrest, he had reappeared at the airport where he started living again. Even though it was rumoured that all the money Spielberg's company paid him had been spent, it's been revealed that at the time of his death, several thousand euros were found on him.