Man stranded for 16 days at Dubai airport

A Syrian man has been stranded at Dubai airport for 16 days in a case with echoes of the Tom Hanks film The Terminal.

Wasfi Tayseer Jarad has been stuck at the airport’s Terminal 2 since being freed from prison after serving time for a drugs conviction and issued with a deportation order, the English-language Gulf News reported.

With his native Syria in political turmoil, authorities in Dubai gave the 34-year-old the option to travel to anywhere that would take him. But his passport has expired, and Jordan – where his family had fled from Syria’s civil war – refused to let him in, as did Turkey and Lebanon.

Mr Jarad said he had been living on a hamburger a day and washing in toilets while his family tried to get him a new passport. He had been offered a flight to Latakia, Syria, but said he feared for his life there, telling the paper: “I wish I could go back to Dubai jail.”

Reuters