Protest at Berlin Airport Against Deportation Flight to Afghanistan
Demonstrators gathered near Berlin airport's Terminal 5 late Wednesday to protest against asylum seekers being sent back to Afghanistan on a deportation flight that evening.
Some of the demonstrators blocked access roads, others forced their way into the premises on the south-eastern edge of Berlin, airport police confirmed.
About 50 to 75 people had been expected at the demonstration, which was approved beforehand by Berlin authorities, but 350 people turned up.
The Brandenburg Refugee Council, which expected a deportation flight to Afghanistan to leave on Wednesday evening, had called for the protests.
Demonstrators chanted slogans and held placards calling for the deportation flight to be cancelled.
Despite a brief scuffle between officers and protesters, the demonstration went off peacefully on the whole, a police spokesman told dpa.
Police asked several demonstrators to leave, but no-one was detained. The protest ended after the plane departed for Afghanistan, the spokesman added.
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