7 Most Famous Airport Residents

Airports, which are usually stopovers on our travels, are sometimes the setting for real life dramas. From unwitting “prisoners” stuck in bureaucratic red tape to those who consciously chose the airport as a temporary refuge, these stories will make you look at familiar transit spaces in a new way.

This is perhaps the most famous and longest-lasting case of living in an airport. It was the one that inspired Steven Spielberg to create the film "The Terminal". This Iranian refugee lived in the terminal of Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris for almost 18 years: from August 26, 1988 to July 2006.

Mehran Nasseri was expelled from Iran for participating in protests and, having received the status of a political refugee from the UN Refugee Commission, decided to go to the UK for further residence. However, in Paris, on the way to London, his documents were stolen, so when he tried to pass through passport control in London, he was sent back to Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he spent the next 18 years.

In 2006, he was hospitalized for an unspecified illness. By the end of January 2007, he left the hospital and lived in a hotel near the airport for several weeks, and was later sent to a homeless shelter in Paris. After the release of the film "The Terminal", Nasseri received $ 250,000 from the creators of the film. But the irony of fate is that a few years before his death in the fall of 2022, the Iranian returned to the very terminal where he spent so many years. It was at the airport that Mehran Nasseri died on November 12. His exact age remains unknown. Due to confusion with documents, his date of birth is unknown. According to airport employees, the man was between 69 and 75 years old.

This Kenyan citizen, who holds a British Overseas Territory passport, which allows temporary stay but not immigration, decided to move to the UK itself for permanent residence. But after being refused by the UK immigration service, he was sent back to Nairobi airport, where he spent more than a year – from May 2004 to July 2005 – protesting the “injustice” surrounding him. Unlike other heroes on this list, Sanjay stayed at the airport voluntarily, despite the fact that he was not refused entry to Kenya. In the end, he achieved his goal, receiving British citizenship and a passport, as well as a ticket to his new homeland.

Zahra and her two children lived in the terminal of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport for ten months, from May 2006 to March 14, 2007. She and her husband were arrested in July 2004 for participating in human rights protests in Tehran. In April 2005, Zahra was released by the authorities for two days to see her children, at which time her husband was executed. Fearing the same fate upon returning to prison, she decided to flee with her children to Canada, where her brother had been living for eight years. Her daughter Anya was 17 at the time, and her son Davud was 10. From Turkey, the family flew via Sheremetyevo to Germany using forged documents, from where Zahra planned to seek political asylum in Canada. However, the German authorities discovered the forgery and returned the family to the airport of departure, Sheremetyevo.

In Moscow, in a deportation center, in a hotel near Sheremetyevo, the Kamalfar family lived for about a year. After the center was closed in May 2006, Russian authorities moved the family to the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport, where they lived on a concrete floor for another ten months. In November 2006, Russian authorities planned to deport her back to Iran, but Zahra cut her wrists and Ana swallowed pills, and the deportation was stopped. As a result, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees finally granted them refugee status, and on March 14, 2007, the family flew to Canada.

This Japanese man arrived in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, on September 2, 2008, on a tourist visa. And for reasons unknown to anyone, he remained in Terminal 1 of Benito Juarez Airport until December 28, 2008, during which time he became a local celebrity. After which, just as mysteriously, for reasons unknown, he left the airport following a woman known as Oyuki, who invited him to her home.

Renowned human rights activist and writer Feng Zhenghu spent nearly three months (from November 9, 2009 to February 3, 2010) at Tokyo's Narita International Airport protesting his ban on returning to China, where he was a citizen. The ban was caused by his human rights work and criticism of the government, which led to his arrest and charges of illegal business dealings.

At the airport, Feng Zhenghu was visited by several Chinese diplomats who persuaded him to enter Japan on the condition that he could return to Shanghai by mid-February. He did so, only to find himself under house arrest. Since his return from forced exile, Feng’s home has been searched more than 10 times, his phones and computers have been confiscated 13 times, he claims to have been physically assaulted, suffering knee and spinal injuries, and was subsequently denied medical treatment.

Syrian Hassan al-Kontar lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates, but in 2018, the Syrian embassy refused to renew his passport because he did not enlist in the military. Hassan did not want to return to his homeland because of the armed conflict and unsuccessfully tried to get to Malaysia, Ecuador and Cambodia, but all countries sent him back. He lived at the Kuala Lumpur airport for 7 months. Journalists paid attention to the man, and kind people were found who helped him obtain refugee status and move to Canada.

A 46-year-old former pilot flew to Rio de Janeiro to meet his beloved, whom he met online. Unfortunately, his beloved never showed up at the airport, and the unfortunate lover quickly ran out of money. For reasons that are not entirely clear, he ended his trip to Brazil at Campinas Airport, where he spent 13 days in October 2009, from where he was taken to a hospital for a psychological examination.