This
weekend, the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, will have spent four
weeks in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Two thousand miles away, in
neighbouring Kazakhstan, a young man has already spent four months in
the transit area of an airport - and admits it is driving him round the
bend.
As airports go, Kazakhstan's Almaty International has not
much going for it. It's small, and there's not much to keep travellers
entertained.For Mohammed Al Bahish being stuck there for 120 days has been an excruciating ordeal.
He does not even have access to the duty free or the overpriced cafes.
The 26-year-old Palestinian refugee, born in Iraq, is confined to what officials call "the sterile zone" for travellers and airport staff - he's the only one who belongs in neither category.
He cannot enter Kazakhstan because he has no visa, but nor does he have a visa to enter any other country. Israel won't allow him to travel to the Palestinian territories, and the UN accepts that with no living relatives in Iraq, it would be unsafe for him to return to the country of his birth.
"I feel like I am going slightly crazy," he says.
Already pale and puffy-faced, he is confined to a windowless 2m by 3m room inside the arrivals hall.
It reeks of cigarette smoke. There is a bunk bed, a shabby sofa, and a Koran on a table by the wall.
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Edward Snowden arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on 23 June from Hong Kong.
He is unable to leave the transit zone as he currently has no asylum documents or Russian visa, and the US has revoked his passport.
He has applied to more than 20 countries for political asylum, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
This week he asked for temporary asylum in Russia.
Snowden in Moscow
He is unable to leave the transit zone as he currently has no asylum documents or Russian visa, and the US has revoked his passport.
He has applied to more than 20 countries for political asylum, including Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
This week he asked for temporary asylum in Russia.
Intensifying Mohammed's sensation
of limbo, he is fed on meals prepared for passengers on Kazakhstan's
national air carrier, Air Astana.
"They bring aeroplane food three times a day - tiny boxes of
salad and cakes," he says. "For the entire month of June I ate beef and
mushroom stroganoff. I don't think I will ever eat beef again."Airport security controls his every movement outside the room. Occasional coffee runs to a drinks dispenser are permitted, as are visits to the showers used by staff in the luggage department.
Wherever he goes, police or security guards accompany him.
His only opportunities for fresh air are walks to a porch area overlooking the runway.
His only contact with the outside world comes when the airport's irregular free wi-fi signal flickers into life. Then he uses Skype.
"I talk to my cousin Yaser, he lives in Norway. I don't have any other close family, my parents died in Iraq when I was 16, and I don't have any brothers or sisters," he says.
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“Start Quote
Mohammed Al BahishI see all these people leaving the building, and I am just stuck here, I can't go anywhere”
The Kazakh national met Mohammed on holiday in Dubai when he was working there as an interior designer.
In Kazakhstan, while registering their intention to marry,
Mohammed's refugee travel documents went missing, and his Kazakh and UAE
visas expired.He later flew to Turkey in the hope of renewing his Kazakh visa, but was turned back at the border.
"I was deported from Istanbul for lack of a valid visa, and they sent me back to Almaty. But here I also did not have a valid visa so they sent me straight back to Istanbul. Four times I flew back and forth between the two cities," Mohammed says.
Kazakh immigration is keeping Mohammed in the airport's transit area, which legally is not considered Kazakh territory.
Last month, the Kazakh authorities turned down his application for asylum.
Mohammed says he has been preoccupied with a single thought since becoming trapped - how to escape.
"I miss the sunshine, I miss being outside," he says.
"I see all these people leaving the building, and I am just stuck here, I can't go anywhere," he says.
We walk through the sliding door on to the steps where passengers board and disembark from shuttle buses. But Mohammed can go no further.
The sound of plane engines fills the air. Behind Almaty, mountains glisten.
"I get too angry when I come out here," he says. "Because I truly feel that I am in jail."
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