Could be a joke

After all, those who know how to handle these formulations correctly might be tempted to tease those who can't -- you know, see if they notice -- but i doubt it.
Slate on Edward Snowden's life in the Moscow transit center:

...the detention rooms. Almost all international airports have these spaces, where refugees and others with uncertain immigration status wait to be admitted to the country or shipped back from whence they came.

That sounds complicated enough to work, as stated; it could result in a variant of the Oriental Duck Pop and disappear him forever.