Passenger stranded at airport for TWO months due to visa permit blunder in real-life echo of Tom Hanks film The Terminal
A PASSENGER has been stranded at an airport for two months due to a huge visa permit blunder.
Dr. Shiva Kaviani got stuck in it Turkey about the horror ordeal reminiscent of the blockbuster Tom Hanks film The Terminal.
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The woman, a respected academic, was visiting her home country Iran and after a busy journey she boarded the return flight to Canada.
Kaviani moved to Toronto for work years ago and has enjoyed living there North America since.
But when her flight made a stopover in Turkey, Kaviani quickly found herself in the spotlight of authorities.
The staff working at Istanbul Airport laid down the rules law told her that her visa was no longer valid.
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This means she could not leave Turkey and was stuck Istanbul.
Dr. Kaviani was then continually denied a new visa because her Canadian residency permit had expired.
Leaving her in a very difficult situation, more than 8,000 kilometers from home.
Since then, the hapless traveler has been stuck at the airport again and again, living the same day over and over again.
They face major problems along the way as Kaviani only carries one suitcase.
Stuck for cash and clean clothes, Kaviani also faced another major problem: finding food.
As a devout vegetarian, Kaviani has reportedly struggled to find tasty food outside of a very select few places.
She has also experienced serious problems getting good nights sleep with her options being the cold, hard floor or unforgiving airport seats.
Adding to the problems, there are also no showers available at Istanbul airport.
This lack of food, poor sleep and cleanliness led to the white-haired scholar health steadily decreasing.
The worst part is a nasty series of wounds on her feet, local media say.
Airport staff do their best to help and support Kaviani, but there is little they can do to resolve her visa issue.
Authorities are now reportedly planning to move her to a new location outside the transit lounge due to growing concerns about her health.
Kaviani has been negotiating with Canada’s Consulate General for the past two months to find a solution, but these talks reportedly kept reaching a dead end.
Local media claim her problems stem from a political ban imposed on Kaviani by the mullahs Tehran -which means she can’t go back to Iran.
The mullahs are a group of Muslims who are highly respected in the community and are often regarded as leaders or religious teachers.
They have been persecuting students and academics like Kaviani for years human rights organizations because of their activism and views that are disapproved.
Dr. Kaviani never boarded another plane after landing in Turkey and has since been forced to remain at the airport – following the example of Tom Hanks in the 2004 blockbuster movie The Terminal.
Her situation is compared to the film in which an Eastern European man gets stuck at JFK Airport in New York.
The Hollywood film is inspired by Iranian national Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who lived in Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris for no less than 18 years.
Life at an airport
This is not the first time someone has lived in an airport, after Nasseri did so in 1988.
Between then and 2006, Mehran was in legal limbo because he had the wrong residency papers, which meant he was not allowed to board a plane.
He decided to stay at the Paris airport and became a worldwide story because of his lifestyle, which often involved eating McDonald’s for dinner and spends his days writing in a diary on his infamous red bench.
His story inspired the Steven Spielberg‘s comedy-drama film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks.
Hanks plays a man stuck at JFK airport after being denied entry into the US.
But his life is turned upside down when he is no longer allowed to return to the fictional Eastern European state of Krakozjia due to a military coup.
Mehran tragic died in 2022 after a heart attack at the airport.
And recently A The British caused a stir in Poland after three weeks of bullying travelers after living in an airport.
The man – known only as Prince N – was repeatedly reported to the police for being rude and aggressive to passengers at Katowice Airport.
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