Imagine this you're exiled from your own country and have nowhere to live you're
trapped inside an airport with no documentation and if you step outside it
you'll be arrested and thrown in jail well that was reality for one man named
Moran Jeremy Nasari between 1988 and 2006 he was trapped
inside Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris France but how did he
get into this situation and how did he escape I'm Charlie and today we're going
to look at why a man lived in an airport for 18 years but before we go through
security and bag check why not subscribe and press the notification bell - so to
really understand Moran story we need to go back to where and when he was born
that is in Iran in 1943 Moran travelled to the United Kingdom in 1973 he did
this to study at the University of Bradford and as a student in the UK he
began to protest against the government of Iran four years later in 1977 his
studies were complete and he returned to Iran but when he got back to his home
country he was not welcomed in fact he was thrown in jail his anti-government
activities all of that protesting had caught up to him and he was put in
prison but later on he was exiled from his country completely this meant he had
to leave and he was officially stateless he did not belong to any country and had
no citizenship he applied to many capitals of Europe
this included Berlin Germany Paris France and London UK but he was denied
political asylum from Iran by all of these countries this went on for four
years until he went to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
finally they were able to get Belgian to give him official refugee status in 1981
after spending some years in Belgium he claimed his mother was British and
wanted to travel to the UK and live there now that he had this status he was
able to get citizenship in any European country so in 1986 he packed his bags
for the UK he traveled to London via Paris but this is where things go
seriously wrong form Iran on the train in Paris
someone stole his briefcase the briefcase contained all of his refugee
documents and his passport so when he arrived at London's Heathrow Airport
passport control simply sent him back to France so he had to get on a flight back
to France's Charles de Gaulle Airport when he got to the airport he was
arrested by French police as he had no documents but his entry into the airport
was actually legal so the police had to release him however there was a catch he
could not leave the airport legally he couldn't go into the country of France
but because he legally entered the airport from another country he was
allowed to be there he was kind of trapped in limbo legally allowed to be
in the airport but he could not legally leave if he left the airport and went
into France then he'd instantly be arrested police
were watching his every move and he'd be thrown in prison so Moran had no
passport no paperwork and no country of origin to return to this meant that
Moran had to live in Terminal one of France's Charles de Gaulle International
Airport he stayed there for a few days which became a few weeks which became a
few months which became a few years 18 years to be exact he lived out of his
suitcase and he spent most of his time studying and reading about economics
he also chronicled his terrible experience in his diary which was over a
thousand pages long to survive he ate at the McDonald's in the food court of the
airport and if you're wondering how he made money well he made it from the
airport you see people would often leave their luggage trolleys lying around at
the airport so the airport began paying flies $0.50 if they put their trolleys
back so what Moran would do is simply gather
off a bunch of trolleys and put them back to collect the money
these weren't even his trolleys they were just random people's and he'd then
collect the $0.50 he also rolled his own Pall Mall cigarettes to pass the time
eventually Moran became a fixture in the terminal and airport employees bought
him newspapers and food every day Moran was also able to groom himself very well
in the men's bathroom and using the money from his trolley scheme he was
able to send his clothing to the dry cleaners eventually Moran's story was
picked up by journalists in France and this then later spread to the entire
world and every one wanted to interview this man
journalists from all over the world traveled to the airport to interview
here and of course he was paid for these interviews which allowed him to make
some money this media buzz led to many sympathetic readers sending him letters
anyone who read news stories about Moran sent him letters of encouragement one
letter said we're hopeful that you'll find a safe comfortable and happy future
and some people who heard about his story in the media also sent him money
orders these money orders would be cashed for him by the airport's chief
medical officer dr. Philippe Baran but eventually all of this media bus
caught the attention of a French human rights lawyer Christiane bourgeois found
out the story and became Moran's lawyer he thought he could try and persuade
Belgium to issue some new refugee documents but there was a problem
Belgium said they could only issue the documents if Moran presented himself in
person of course this was a problem because he needed the documents in order
to present himself in person to get the documents there was no way Moran could
get from the airport in Paris to Belgium without being arrested after all he had
no passport or documentation of who he was
not only that Belgium has a law that states any refugee who leaves the
country after being accepted it cannot return but finally in 1999 after
Christian the lawyer worked with the Belgium government he was able to get
Moran's and new papers the Belgian government sent the papers through the
mail and the French authorities gave Moran a residence permit but to his
lawyer's astonishment Moran was not happy with this he actually said he
thought the papers they sent him both fake he said that in 1981 he was given
papers with the name sir Alfred Moran and a British nationality but if the
name on the papers the Belgian government gave him was his original
name Moran Karimi nursery and the nationality listed him as Iranian which
of course he was his lawyer who'd spent nearly ten years trying to help him was
absolutely stunned and because Moran was not happy he remained at Terminal one of
the airport now you may think wouldn't it be more logical for him to simply
sign the papers and then legally change his name well you see the thing is Moran
was not really thinking logically at this point surprisingly living inside an
airport for years can make go a little looping and according to
Mariah's lawyer that's what happened to him
in 2003 Marantz lawyer Christian told GQ that Moran had gone insane apparently at
one point Moran had told his lawyer he was actually Swedish his lawyer then
said how did you get from Sweden to Iran and then Moran said submarine now of
course this is all mumbo jumbo but by this time he'd gone mad
then in 2006 Moran was hospitalized for an unknown ailment this ended his long
stay at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris and
instead he was taken to hospital and then later put up in a hotel near the
airport but he never did get on that flight to London however he was given
freedom in France and as of 2008 he was living in a homeless shelter in Paris in
2004 a movie by Steven Spielberg was made about his life starring Tom Hanks
called the terminal so while he didn't get to London like he set out to do in
1988 he is now living in France but other than that no one's exactly sure
what's going on in the life of Moran Chimaera nursery right now but one
thing's for sure it's pretty amazing that he lived in an airport terminal for
18 years but now it's time to make your opinion heard floatin the pole in the
top right corner do you think he would go mad living in an airport terminal for
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