Real-life The Terminal: Tourist has been stranded at Manila Airport for more than 100 days after getting stuck due to coronavirus in echoes of Tom Hanks film
- Roman Tromifov has been stranded in Manila’s departures hall since March 20
- Philippines stopped issuing tourist visas and AirAsia scrapped all its flights
- His ordeal echoes the 2004 film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks and set at JFK
A tourist is pleading to be rescued after spending more than 100 days living in a Philippine airport during the coronavirus crisis.
Roman Tromifov has been stuck in the departures hall of Manila International Airport since he arrived from Bangkok on March 20.
He was denied entry to the country after the Philippines suspended entry visas because of the virus pandemic, but he could not get out either because AirAsia cancelled its entire schedule and there are no flights back to his home in Estonia.
His ordeal echoes the 2004 film The Terminal in which Tom Hanks plays an Eastern European tourist left stranded in JFK Airport after a coup in his home country.
The film was loosely based on the true story of Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who lived in limbo at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport from 1988 to 2006.
Stranded: Roman Tromifov (pictured) has been stuck in the departures hall of Manila International Airport since he arrived from Bangkok on March 20
Roman Trofimov’s case has echoes of the 2004 film The Terminal, in which Tom Hanks (pictured) plays a tourist who gets stuck at JFK Airport in New York
Trofimov took an AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Manila on March 20, just as the world was becoming engulfed by the pandemic.
The Eastern European tourist had been travelling in south-east Asia but his schedule was thrown into chaos when the Philippines shut its borders.
When he arrived in Manila he was told that the Philippines was no longer issuing tourist visas, meaning he was unable to enter the country.
He had an onward flight to Cebu province booked for the same day on March 20 and a return flight to Bangkok for April 2, but both were cancelled.
According to Estonian broadcaster ERR, Trofimov was travelling on a so-called ‘grey passport’ for people of unclear citizenship.
Estonian authorities say the document – also known as an ‘alien’s passport’ – is issued to people with Estonian residence rights who cannot get another passport.
Trofimov claims that AirAsia took the passport when he arrived at the airport, meaning that only AirAsia can fly him back.
However the airline cancelled all its flights in the Philippines in March because of the virus pandemic, and has yet to resume its international schedule.
Roman Trofimov (pictured) was denied entry to the country after the Philippines suspended entry visas because of the virus pandemic, but he could not get out either because AirAsia cancelled its entire schedule and there are no flights back to his home in Estonia
Trofimov’s makeshift accommodation at the airport where he has been stranded for more than three months after the Philippines denied him entry
Trofimov says the Estonian embassy was unable to arrange for his repatriation, although officials claim he declined an evacuation flight.
‘It is important to note that he flew to the Philippines during a time when countries had announced emergency situations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had given a travel warning,’ a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Trofimov says the embassy offered him a flight to Amsterdam but claims he was asked to pay for the €1,500 ticket from his own pocket, which he could not afford.
He has now been living in the airport for 110 days, from March 20 to July 7.
The tourist likened his situation to being a prisoner. He said: ‘I’ve been stuck here for more than 100 days. I need help getting out.’
‘The airline said I need to wait for Enhanced Community Quarantine to be over before I am allowed to fly,’ he said, referring to the Philippine lockdown order.
Trofimov has been sleeping in an airport departures hotel room and surviving on food and snacks donated by staff.
He added: ‘I am a person with disability, my health is getting worse because of malnutrition, lack of sun, and fresh air. I have no other choice, but to go public.’
The Tom Hanks film was inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who spent almost two decades at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
After being denied entry to Britain in 1988, he was sent back to France where authorities ruled he could not enter the country nor be deported from the airport.