You’ve probably heard of, and may have already seen the new movie starring Tom Hanks: ***The Terminal|http://www.theterminal-themovie.com/***. (I haven’t seen it yet, but Becky and I hope to do so soon.) What you may not know is that the movie is loosely based around a real person: Merhan Kerimi Nasser.

Nasseri has been trapped at Paris’ ***Charles de Gaulle|http://gallery.prwdot.org/cdg*** airport since 1988. Expelled from Iran in 1977 because of his political beliefs, he sought political assylum through the United Nations. When he finally received it in 1981, he searched for a country in which he could apply for citizenship. He decided on the United Kingdom, and finally set out for the UK in 1988. But his refugee documents were stolen in Paris. He flew to the UK anyway, but was sent back to Paris, and has been living at the airport ever since.

Nasseri’s bizarre situation has already been chronicled in the 1993 French film, ***Tombés du ciel|http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0108359/***.

You can read the rest of his fascinating story ***here|http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/airport.htm***.