He was initially arrested by the French, but then released as his entry to the airport was legal and he had no country of origin to be returned to; thus began his residence at Terminal 1.His case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget. In 1992, a French court ruled that having entered the country legally, he could not be expelled from the airport, but it could not grant him permission to enter France.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri’s story is more than a tale of bureaucratic absurdity — it is a meditation on home, identity, and the modern condition of statelessness. For millions who saw The Terminal, he was a symbol of resilience and quiet dignity. For those who worked at the airport, he was a friend, a philosopher, and a mystery. As one airport employee told Le Parisien: “He was part of the airport. You could walk past him every day for years, and he would always nod, always smile. He was home here.”
