ISLAMABAD
\nAn Iranian who got stuck for 18 years in a Paris airport, inspiring a Steven Spielberg movie starring Tom Hanks, died on Saturday at the terminal, an airport official said. Mehran Karimi Nasseri died of natural causes just before midday on Saturday in terminal 2F at Charles de Gaulle airport outside the French capital, the official told AFP.
\nCaught originally in an immigration trap \u2014 unable to enter France and with nowhere to go \u2014 he became dependent on his unusual place of living and increasingly a national and international cause celebre. Mehran Karimi Nasseri, a political refugee who lived more than 18 years in Paris\u2019 Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, died, Nov 12, 2022 at the age of 77 in the airport.
\nHe called himself \u201cSir Alfred,\u201d and a small section of airport parquet and a plastic bench became his domain. Karimi Nasseri\u2019s peculiar story came to the attention of Hollywood director Spielberg, inspiring 2004 film \u201cThe Terminal,\u201d which starred Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
\nHanks played a man who becomes trapped at New York\u2019s JFK airport when his home country collapses into revolution.
\nAfter spending most of the money he received for the film, Karimi Nasseri returned to the airport a few weeks ago, the official said.
\nSeveral thousand dollars were found on him.
\nBorn in 1945 in Masjed Soleiman, in the Iranian province of Khuzestan, Karimi Nasseri, took up residence in the airport in November 1988 after flying from Iran to London, Berlin and Amsterdam in an effort to locate his mother.
\nHe had been expelled from every other country he landed in because he was unable to produce the correct paperwork.
\nAt Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport an informal support network grew up around him, providing food and medical help along with books and a radio.
\nIn 1999 he was granted refugee status and the right to remain in France.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure what I want to do, stay at Roissy or leave,\u201d he said after being given the right to live in France. \u201cI have papers, I can stay here, I think I should carefully study all the options before making a decision.\u201d
\nHe didn\u2019t leave then.
\n\u201cHe no longer wants to leave the airport,\u201d his lawyer Christian Bourguet said at the time. \u201cHe\u2019s scared of going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD An Iranian who got stuck for 18 years in a Paris airport, inspiring a Steven Spielberg movie starring Tom Hanks, died on Saturday at the terminal, an airport official said. Mehran Karimi Nasseri died of natural causes just before midday on Saturday in terminal 2F at Charles de Gaulle airport outside the French capital, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-295006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n