Airport community aids a marooned traveler

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Saturday, October 16, 2004

Airport community aids a marooned traveler

Like the character in the movie "The Terminal" a Montagnard tribesman is unable to return to his homeland in Vietnam. Linguistic difficulties and a lack of papers are holding him at LAX.
By Kristin S. Agostoni
Daily Breeze

(snip)

As far as airport employees can tell, the man, whose name Castles withheld, arrived at LAX in late September on a flight from Charlotte, N.C., where he had been living since being granted refugee status by the United States in 2002.

With two other Vietnamese men -- all three are part of a mountain tribal group known as the Montagnards -- he had intended to return to his native country.

(snip).

Castles said all three men entered the country legally and had found jobs in the South, but told officials they had decided to leave. Without visas to enter, however, the group last month was denied boarding a China Airlines flight to Taipei, Castles said. For days at a time, authorities believe, they stayed grounded in Los Angeles, managing to stay anonymous in a terminal bustling with international passengers.

(snip)

The man left behind at LAX, however, has been unable to fly without the proper documentation. After he was turned over to a shelter on Skid Row, Castles said, his North Carolina identification card, Social Security card and refugee travel documents were stolen or lost. All he has are photocopies -- hardly enough to give him permission to leave Los Angeles, let alone make an overseas flight, she said. Along with the documentation, Castles said the man lost $600 in cash.

"He doesn't even have travel papers," she said. "We realize that he probably will be here through Sunday night." By Monday, Castles said, volunteers with Travelers Aid plan to assist the man in getting the proper papers. But until then the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services office downtown remains closed, which means his temporary home for the weekend is the airport.

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Find this article at:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/1106576.html