No I did not make this one up it is from the Chicago
Tribune. And I promise never, ever to complain about long lay-
overs again.
London - For many people, time spent in an airport can be a
nightmare. For Merhan Karimi Nasseri, that is literally so.
For 11 years he has lived in Paris' Charles de Gaulle
Airport, watching millions of travelers come and go while he
has been a prisoner of the airport. In all that time, he has
never been able to go outside to inhale a breath of fresh
air.
Nasseri, 54, and Iranian exile, was technically expelled
from France in 1988 because he had lost a Belgian-issued
refugee document and could not justify his status to French
authorities while enrolled as a student in Paris.
But the French found that no other country would take him,
so authorities allowed him to stay in Terminal 1 of the
airport.
And there he has remained, bedding down at night on a red
plastic bench beside the Paris Bye Bye cafeteria in the noisy
departure lounge shopping mall. He spends his days at a tiny
table in the cafeteria living on hamburgers and writing a daily
diary about his troubles.
But now Nasseri finally has the documents he needs to make
him a free man. All he has to do is sign them and go where he
likes. The only problem is he won't do it.
Dr Philippe Bargain, the airport's chief medical officer,
several weeks ago presented Nasseri and international travel
card and a French residency permit, documents he had been
fighting for years to obtain.
Nasseri smiled, tucked the documents into a folder and go on
with his diary.
"He has been badly affected by all this," Bargain said,
shaking his head. "Now we have to try and get him out of
here. This breakthrough is difficult for him to take in, all
in one go. The fact is there is no longer any reason now for
him to be here."
Nasseri is known affectionately to airport staff as Sir
Alfred, a result of his repeated attempts to enter Britain.
"The UK immigration forms offer a space for an adopted name,
and I chose Alfred because I thought it sounded nice," Nasseri
said. "One day I got a letter back from them addressed to me
as 'Dear Sir, Alfred,' and so it just stuck."
Nasseri, who suffers from mental confusion because of his
long ordeal, said he would not sign the documents that Bargain
handed to him because they refer to him as an Iranian.
"He blames Iran for many of his problems," Bargain
said. "We have to convince him to sign. It is a ridiculous
situation."
Nasseri's French lawyer, Christian Bourguet, who played a
role in 1980 negotiations to free U.S. hostages held in Iran
after the revolution there, said, "It has been a most
scandalous and unbelievable saga of bureaucratic mischief.
He said the Belgians for years refused to acknowledge having
issued the documents that Nasseri lost. When the finally did,
the presented him a Catch-22 situation: He had to go to
Belgium to retrieve copies in person. But he couldn't because
he had no travel permit and couldn't get one without the
documents.
In July, the Belgians finally agreed to send him a copy of
his refugee card, allowing him to apply for a French residency
permit and an international travel card.
During his long stay in the airport, Nasseri has gotten by
with handouts from airport staff. He washes himself and cleans
his few clothes in airport restrooms. He writes his diary in
English and reads mail-order books.
Bargain has begun contacting refugee associations to find
Nasseri a hostel and help him return to normal life.
"He needs to be looked after, to be coaxed back into the
outside world," Bargain said. "But we will not force him to
leave."
"I still have no money to pay for a room or for shopping,"
Nasseri said. "I must wait her for a bit."
