Trapped in an airport for the rest of your life?

[thomas7g]

Tom Hanks plays a man who is trapped for months in an airport in "The Terminal". What's amazing is that its based on a true story. This is an amazing tale. Bizarre but true!! (AFAIK)


Merhan Karimi Nasseri was exiled from Iran. When his refugee papers were stolen, he was denied permission to enter England, then he was shipped back to France (his last transit point) but he's not allowed to touch French soil outside the airport. But he has no papers to fly anywhere else. His refugee papers were originally from Belgium, but they refuse to give him new copies unless he does so THERE, in person so they can verify it is him. But he can't leave to get the papers unless he has the papers which allow him to leave.

He's been living in the Charles DeGaul airport since 1988. And he's STILL there.

http://www.geektimes.com/michael/culture/reality/merhan-nasseri/stranded.html

Amazingly this is not a "urban legend". The airport doctors gives him regular yearly checkups, and many people give him food, though he refuses to beg for anything and denies most charity. He baths in the bathrooms before and after most of the airport shops closes. This is his life.

[unowhoandwhy]

He was paid for his story by the company that made the movie and was also offered a country to live in (I can't remember which), but his mental state is so fragile after all these years that he can't seem to bring himself to leave the security of the airport. He needs psychological help, but can't see that he needs it and I don't know why no one has done some kind of "intervention" to get him the help he needs. He will probably die in that airport without ever touching ground in any country again.

[Muffit]

It is possible to endure severe negative conditioning for so long a time that no person or thing over any span of time can undo the damage. Sad truth. Poor man...


:muffit:

[PlaidSquadron]

I saw this and thought "Yeah, right"

But according to the Urban Legends Website (www.snopes.com) it is true

Wierd, but true...

[thomas7g]

There is a documentary about him listed in IMDB. :)

[Rowan]

I can't even begin to imagine! no computer? no internet to play on no cyber friends to chat with all day???? I'd go mad!:eek: ;)


On a more serious note I think it's appaling that this situation has been allowed to go on for as long as it has! It should have been dealt with immediately!

[unowhoandwhy]

That's what happens in a bureaucracy. You get weighed down in paperwork and rules and forget about people.

[Muffit]

As "modern" people, we often legislate ourselves out of common sense. I remember working at a company, and the whole place went down cuz of one problem. I knew how to fix it, but it wasn't my job of course. But I was just sitting in my office, and we were losing 100's of thousands of dollars an hour. So I thought, surely no one would mind if I just fixed it. So I did.

The next day my manager called me in and chewed me up and down this side of heaven for helping a different department ("How do I cost this? What cost center can I use for actions not directly related to our dept.? You work for ME, yadda yadda").

No one cared that I saved the company a ton of money. All they cared about was how to "cost" my "inappropriate" actions. Silly stupid rules. :wtf:

:muffit:

[BST]

As "modern" people, we often legislate ourselves out of common sense. I remember working at a company, and the whole place went down cuz of one problem. I knew how to fix it, but it wasn't my job of course. But I was just sitting in my office, and we were losing 100's of thousands of dollars an hour. So I thought, surely no one would mind if I just fixed it. So I did.

The next day my manager called me in and chewed me up and down this side of heaven for helping a different department ("How do I cost this? What cost center can I use for actions not directly related to our dept.? You work for ME, yadda yadda").

No one cared that I saved the company a ton of money. All they cared about was how to "cost" my "inappropriate" actions. Silly stupid rules. :wtf:

:muffit:

LOL, Muffit. You're absolutely right. Common sense and position on the corporate ladder are inversely related!
;)

[shiningstar]

He was paid for his story by the company that made the movie and was also offered a country to live in (I can't remember which), but his mental state is so fragile after all these years that he can't seem to bring himself to leave the security of the airport. He needs psychological help, but can't see that he needs it and I don't know why no one has done some kind of "intervention" to get him the help he needs. He will probably die in that airport without ever touching ground in any country again.

I remember that story. IT is amazing that he has survived so long with
having to live that way.