German man living at Delhi airport since March 18
NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old German man has been living in the transit area of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport for the past 54 days in a story not dissimilar to that of Viktor Navorski, the fictional character played by Tom Hanks in the 2004 Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal”.
The German national, Edgard Ziebat, was on his way from Hanoi to Istanbul on March 18, the day India cancelled all flights to and from Turkey in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Four days later, India stopped all international flights, and then, on March 25, imposed a national lockdown that is now scheduled to continue till May 17.
While there were other stranded passengers at the airport at the time, what complicated things for Ziebat is that he has a criminal record in his home country, which has refused to take custody of him because he is at a foreign location, according to two security officers from the airport who asked not to be named. India, too, did not give him a visa because of his criminal record, the officers added.
“We confirm that a foreign national is currently in the transit area of the international terminal of Delhi airport due to non-availability of regular flight to transit onwards. Appropriate authorities were informed about this in good time. They are in dialogue with the foreign national,” a spokesperson for Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) said.
There was no immediate response from the German embassy to calls and text messages regarding the development.
On March 18, Ziebat landed in New Delhi from Vietnam as a transit passenger to Istanbul, only to realise that all flights to his destination were cancelled, one of the officers cited above said.
“After spending around a week in the transit area, with four other stranded passengers who arrived in Delhi on different dates — two from Sri Lanka and one each from the Maldives and the Philippines — airport authorities alerted their respective embassies,” the officer said.
“While others were facilitated by their embassies concerned and were taken for quarantine, officials from the German embassy informed the Indian bureau of immigration that Ziebat is a wanted criminal in their country. Since he was on a foreign land, they did not take his custody,” the officer said.