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Afghan man dies in brawl at temporary refugee facility

An Afghan man was fatally injured in a brawl of up to 50 third country nationals on Thursday at a temporary shelter in the facilities of the old Athens airport, in the coastal Helleniko district.

Another two men, all Afghans, were also injured and taken to a nearby hospital.

The melee occurred at roughly 8 p.m. local time for as yet undetermined reasons.

Thousands of Third World nationals, including from as far away as Morocco and Bangladesh, took advantage of the Mideast refugee flow into Greece over the past year and a half to clandestinely enter the country via Turkey.

The initial aim was to reach preferred destinations in central and western Europe, however, when governments along the so-called “Balkan route” refused entry to non-refugees, initially, followed by all non-visa holders, irregular migrants began seeking political asylum in Greece.

The process, however, is not quick, with would-be migrants, mostly young men, often housed together with refugee families.