Tom Hank's Terminal Movie Comes True, German National stays in Delhi Airport for 55 Days

After staying at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport for 55 days, a 40-year-old German man boarded a flight to Amsterdam on Tuesday. He was unable to travel because of the COVID-19 containment measures taken by the government.

Ziebat was reported to have been living at the airport since March 18. He had arrived in New Delhi from Hanoi and was only a transit passenger. He was on his way to Istanbul, Turkey. However, all the flights to Turkey were banned on March 18, followed by a complete ban on international flights in India. Hence, he had no option but to stay at the airport.

Zeibat was also unable to obtain an Indian Visa because of an old criminal record. He was also served with a “Leave India” notice by the authorities as by the law of the land, transit passengers are only permitted to stay in the country for a period of 24 hours.

Before he flew out of New Delhi at around 3 am on Tuesday, he was screened for COVID-19. However, he did not show any symptoms. In the paperwork before taking the flight with 291 other people, Ziebat mentioned Terminal 3 to be his house in India and the Indira Gandhi International airport as the place of his stay in this country.

A Germany Embassy representative had also told the Indian authorities that Zeibat was offered a ticket to Germany, which he refused to take. Reports state that he had purchased his ticket to Amsterdam with his own money.