At least three homeless women were discovered to be living in Ben Gurion airport, according to a Channel 2 report.

“I am very sick, that’s why I’m here,” said Yelena explaining how she used to live in a shelter near Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station and has now been living on and off at the airport for over six months. “People are helping me. It is warmer in the bathroom, so I mostly sit there.”

Another elderly woman who has been living at the airport for two months described how she usually just walks around pushing a trolley.

The women shower and sleep at the airport and when possible, the worried staff give them food and warm beverages as well.

 “I always see them, they come to buy a cup of tea all the time,” said a terminal worker. There is also a social worker employed at Ben Gurion Airport who takes care of the Russian-speaking women.

Ori Dikovksy, the airport’s shift manager, said that sometimes foreigners “get stuck” at the airport for lack of funds, a problem with their ticket or other such reasons.

“There is someone like that here now, who claims that she was misled as to the time of her flight, so she missed it,” said Dikovsky of a woman who had been there for a week.

Dikovsky made reference to the famous 2004 Tom Hanks movie “Terminal” which follows a man who becomes trapped at New York’s JFK airport after his home country collapses into revolution. “I think this happens everywhere in the world,” he said.

Security guards have no orders or interest to evict the women as long as they do not pose a threat to public order or constitute a nuisance.