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by being one of the first 200 to sign up at Brilliant.org/HAI. This was the home of Mehran Karimi Nasseri—better
known as Sir Alfred. In his home he did normal home things like
eat, sleep, wash up, relax—really the only thing that made his home unique was that it
was Terminal 1 of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport…which looks like a Stalinist designed
donut. After the third hour being told that your
flight will board in 15 minutes it can start to feel like you’ll be stuck in the airport
forever but I guarantee that you’ve never been as delayed as Sir Alfred. Thanks to an inescapable infinite loop of
bureaucracy Sir Alfred landed at CDG in 1988 and he didn’t leave until 2006. Sir Alfred, born in Iran, grew up fairly comfortably
with his dad being a doctor for an oil company. When he was 27, though, Alfred found himself
protesting against the monarchy in Iran, which was eventually toppled, but before that he
was expelled from the country and his citizenship was revoked. With that he was stateless. About 1 in 750 people globally are stateless. That is, they aren’t officially citizens
of any country. Unfortunately this isn’t the miracle solution
to evading taxes and laws. It’s a major inconvenience that stops people
from getting social benefits, traveling, and more. There are a lot of ways people can become
stateless but one major one is plotting to overthrow the government of a country like
Alfred allegedly did. After bouncing around for a bit, Sir Alfred
was eventually granted refugee status by Belgium, also known as the Francerlands. Soon after Alfred’s dad died his mom revealed
she was not actually Alfred’s mom and that he had been born out of an affair his dad
had with a Scottish nurse. There were pros and cons to this. Pro: Alfred would be eligible for British
citizenship. Con: Alfred would not be eligible under Iranian
law to receive his father’s inheritance… oh and his whole life was a lie. As a stateless person, Alfred wanted to make
his way to London to apply for citizenship but somehow he lost his refugee papers. He says they were stolen, others say he got
rid of them. Quick side note: Sir Alfred had told tons
of different versions of his story so almost every article you’ll read about this will
have a slightly different story but the consensus seems to be that Alfred left France lite,
went to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, somehow boarded a plane, and flew to London. Now, this shouldn’t have happened because,
in order to fly internationally, you have to have a valid passport and visa and Sir
Alfred did not. It was probably an airline mistake. Nowadays, airlines are fined an average of
$3,500 for each passenger they fly without a valid passport or visa and they have to
fly the passenger back to their origin free of charge. Upon arrival to the UK, not having any passport
to get in, Sir Alfred was turned right back around and placed on a plane back to Paris
Charles de Gaulle Terminal 1. But, for the same reason he couldn’t enter
the UK, Sir Alfred also couldn’t enter France. Normally the protocol in this case would be
to send the person back to their home country where they could, in an emergency, enter without
a passport but Sir Alfred had no home country so he couldn’t enter France and he couldn’t
fly anywhere meaning he was well and truly stuck in Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal
1. After a brief stint in jail he set up shop
on this bench and that’s where he lived for the next 18 years. The airport had everything he needed—bathrooms,
food, even a doctor which, being in the stalinist, socialist donut was, of course, free. Now, there were attempts to get Sir Alfred
the refugee papers he needed but to do so he would need to go to Belgium and, of course,
without the refugee papers he couldn’t leave the airport to go to Belgium. It was an infinite loop of bureaucracy. It’s worth noting that Sir Alfred was actually
in the public area before security during his stay but it would’ve been illegal for
him to step outside even if nothing was physically stopping him. Eventually, after about 10 years, both France
and Belgium offered him residency but he refused to sign the papers that would finalize this
as they listed him as Iranian—in his mind, he was anything but that. Some say Sir Alfred’s mental state deteriorated
as the years racked up but it seemed that he perhaps grew fond of his airport home and
he had made friends there. For most of the early years he relied on his
savings—there was a bank in the airport—and the occasional money that strangers who heard
his story gave or sent him—there was a post office too—but in 2004, while he was still
in the airport, he published his autobiography which made him some money and DreamWorks Pictures
paid him $250,000 as they were making the film, the Terminal. This Spielberg movie was not based off of
Sir Alfred’s story but rather loosely inspired so the payment was mostly legal cover to be
sure that Sir Alfred wouldn’t later sue. In interviews around this time he kept saying
he was weeks away from leaving but, eventually, his departure did not come by choice. In 2006 he was hospitalized for six months
with medical issues and after, rather than returning to the airport, he eventually settled
down in a Paris homeless shelter where he’s lived ever since. If you find yourself stuck in an airport for
18 years you’re going to need something to do and what better way to use your free
time than learn something new, perhaps on brilliant.org. Brilliant is the best place to learn new things
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given $250K, lives in a homeless shelter.... wut?
They said he relied on his savings and what people gave him for his story to sustain himself.... what would happen to someone caught in such a loop who was penniless from the get-go? Just force them to stay in the terminal until starvation if no one gave them money out of charity?
Probably not, but I wonder what system would aid him with no state services backing him up (aside from emergency medical aid).
KRAKOZHIA!
This makes me wanna read Catch-22 again.
i have been stuck in my moms basement for 24 years
The Terminal 2