Stateless man stuck on island

Stateless man stuck on island

amanpour.blogs.cnn.com

In the movie "The Terminal," actor Tom Hanks plays a man who suddenly finds himself stateless when his country ceases to exist. New York’s JFK Airport becomes his only home.

That movie was loosely based on a true story, but for Mikhail Sebastian being stateless is a dilemma that is all too real.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow! Never thought I would see a story like this. Poor fellow simply just wanted to do what he loved and travel to see the world. Now he has been stuck for over a year and counting and looks like hes going to be there for good not getting any help getting back home. Its ridiculous that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement deemed it self-deportation and did not realize it was a simple mistake. I hope he does make it home for Christmas, but I highly doubt it.

amanpour.blogs.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by theUNKNOWNawaits

A friend's dad is a diplomat overseas.

He was telling us that the President/Prime Minister at that time had gone to visit Japan to strengthen relations.

While he was gone, the government had dissolved.

When he landed, there was no protocol. He got off the plane, hailed a cab and went home.

reply to post by gladtobehere


Haha Man that is ridiculous to have such a drastic change in one's life. PM to a regular Joe. Sounds like he took it well and was able to move on from it, better than I might have done.

Fortunately, for the gentleman in your story he was able to get home and move on with his life. Unfortunately, this is not so for Sebastian.

reply to post by theUNKNOWNawaits

If he ever gets back in the country, I'll bet he won't be making any more side trips to places he isn't sure what country they are a part of.
I guess when ICE tells you not to leave the country, they really mean it.

ICE agents are not known for flexibility and compassion.

My colleagues and I have had a few minor run-ins with them, but don't tell them they just asked a stupid question, because they can and will prevent you from entering the country legally, for a while at least, if you make them mad, which my colleague managed to do when he didn't like their stupid question, and told them so.

Now he probably wishes he had just answered the question, no matter how stupid it was, LOL.

a few points that concern me -

this farce has been going on for at least 15 years - possibly upto 19 years

his travelling strikes me as reckless - having been allegedly stateless for more than 15 years - i would expect him to be more savvy about soverignty and his rights to cross borders

i have grave susspicions that we are not getting all the facts here

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Yeah, I bet your right about that one or at least he will be double and triple checking where he can or can not go. It definitely does appear like ICE aint compassionate about anything as this is a true mistake, in my opinion, that they could be flexible on for once.

Haha. It is a shame that some people take their power too far such as the incident you are referring about with your colleague. More people need to learn how to get over silly upsetting things, such as being told they asked a stupid question. Move on and don't ruin a person's life for as long as you can.

It does not appear that Sebastian did not answer a stupid question and that is why he is stranded though. It might seem as if some racism or some type of discrimination may be going on here.

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Perhaps you are right that there may be more to the story than we are being privelidged to see, as it does also strike me a bit odd that he has been essentially "stateless" while living in America for such a long time in the past.

Perhaps his traveling has been somewhat reckless. It has put him in the position that he is now in. However, it appears that traveling is a passion of his and something he loves to do. It is tough to simply put what one loves to do on hold in life. I do what I love to do everyday and it would be difficult for me to not to do what I love for the rest of my life.

I do agree that he should have made sure he was allowed to go where he went, as he most likely knew that if he made a mistake the situation he is currently in would happen to him. Who knows though as we all make mistakes in life some more detrimental to ourselves than others.

I hope to hear more about this story in the future, so we can indeed get all of the facts right about this story. In the end, I simply hope that he is able to return home.

His ability to remain as a stateless person does not bother me, he isn't alone in that. There are many people in the United States that have come here as stateless persons, whether from loss of country, or their home country revoking their citizenship.

Most of them become United States citizens.

Why he hasn't become a United States citizen is the real story here.

reply to post by DoYouEvenLift


Agreed, this does appear to be the most odd part of the story. It does not exactly say in what year he first entered America, however, it does appear to be maybe around the mid to late 1990's. That is a long time ago giving him plenty of time to become a citizen. So it is indeed very odd that he did not.

Therfore, I agree with ignorant_ape (and I assume that you do as well from your post) that we may not have all the facts to this story at our disposal at this time.

and ? theres far worse places in the world one could end up stuck in ... also considering how fast things are falling apart in america would say he is very lucky to be stuck where he is...

reply to post by theUNKNOWNawaits


was a good movie... poor guy lol

the pills are for goat

snf

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

ICE agents are not known for flexibility and compassion....

Now he probably wishes he had just answered the question, no matter how stupid it was, LOL.

Ah, ain't it the truth.

I had a surprising run-in with Customs once. Hey, did you know they can apparently listen in to the bathroom that you use coming off the plane and into intake? My buddy and I were in there coming back from South America and I made a comment about work. Got into the intake line, and these customs guys grabbed us out of line and started the third degree. It was sort of bizarre. They got us in separate rooms and started trying to play us off against each other, which was a hoot.

"What were you doing there?"

"Does that have any bearing on the contents of my luggage?"

"Answer the question!"

"Uh, ok, I have nothing to declare, I have no fruits or vegetables, and I am not bringing in any foreign currency or live animals"

"Your friend has revealed what this is"

"Ah, you've discovered my secret Agilent spectrum analyzer, of course, you might have just read the description right here on the front..."

"What did you do with this?"

"Analyzed spectra?"

So we got to sit there a long long time while they ran our IDs, and thought about it, and re-ran them, and tried to come up with trick questions. Seriously, does it really matter about professional organizations I belong to? We went on about that for a half hour alone.


"What do you mean by 'professional organizations'?"
"You know, professional organizations"
"Like?"
"Answer the question"
"Ok, I am a turtle"
"WTF?"
"No, seriously"
"You think I'm playing?"
"Tell me what you want and I can give you better answers...how about the IEEE? I'm an IEEE member"

You'd be surprised how miserable those guys can make you for no real reason at all.

reply to post by Bedlam


Thanks for the entertaining story.

While the details differ from that of my colleague's story, the basic plot is similar...clueless ICE agents detaining people and asking ridiculous questions.

They probably didn't even know what IEEE was, so while that should have reassured them, it probably just made them more suspicious.

reply to post by Expat888


True, he could have gotten stuck in a worse place, however, I would not go so far as to say he is lucky to be stuck there and not where he considers home to be.

reply to post by goou111


Haha, yea it was a good movie. Haven't seen it in awhile might watch it again soon now though.

Originally posted by Bedlam
"Ok, I am a turtle"

That was great.
Truly a shame though that they enjoy making things miserable for people. What a waste.

Originally posted by theUNKNOWNawaits

Originally posted by Bedlam
"Ok, I am a turtle"

That was great.
Truly a shame though that they enjoy making things miserable for people. What a waste.

I don't think the guy ever got that comment, either. Not a lot of turtles left anymore.

They even got all oddball about small stuff, like my keychain. Yes, I have RFID tags on it like janitors have keys. Yes, I have a very quirky keychain bangle. But the ominousity of it is hard to figure.