The Latest: German state may not deport far-right victims

ROME – The Latest on the influx of migrants in Europe (all times local):

7:45 p.m.

The German state of Brandenburg will stop deporting failed asylum-seekers if they are victims of far-right violence.

The eastern state, which encircles Berlin, has seen numerous neo-Nazi attacks against migrants and refugee homes in recent years.

The Potsdamer Neuesten Nachrichten daily reported Tuesday that a decree instructs civil servants to use the leeway available to them to let victims of far-right attacks remain in the country.

Asylum-seekers who share responsibility for a violent incident or who have themselves committed a crime are exempt from the stay of deportation.

German police recorded 857 far-right crimes against refugee homes across the country in 2016, down from 923 the previous year.

The figures jumped sharply in 2015 amid an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers to Germany. In 2014, there had been 177 far-right attacks.

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3:50 p.m.

Police in northern Greece say an Afghan migrant has died of hypothermia after crossing a river that forms the country’s border with Turkey.

The body of the man believed to be 20 years old was found in a field early Tuesday near the Greek border town of Didimoteicho after police were alerted by another Afghan man who said he had travelled with him across the Evros River.

Overnight temperatures in the area plunged to -14 Celsius (7 F).

Greek authorities are battling a spike in river crossings as migrants try to avoid being detained on the Greek islands, where a deportation agreement between the European Union and Turkey remains in effect and facilities are overcrowded.

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1:15 p.m.

Spanish authorities say border guards have recently detained two Moroccans for attempting to smuggle migrants concealed in a suitcase and in a car as they crossed the border into Ceuta, Spain’s enclave in North Africa.

The Guardia Civil says that custom officials found a 19-year-old migrant from Gabon hidden in a suitcase pushed by a woman who tried to enter from Morocco on Friday.

The 22-year-old Moroccan woman tried to avoid the security checks, which raised the suspicions of the agents. When officials requested she open the luggage, they found the man curled into the poorly-oxygenated hard suitcase. According to police, the man received immediate medical attention.

In a separate case on Monday, police also arrested a 30-year-old Moroccan man for hiding two migrants in a car.

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10:25 a.m.

Italian police say they have quelled a violent protest by occupants of a migrant centre near Venice that left fearful workers barricaded inside offices.

Carabinieri paramilitary police in Chioggia, near the Cona migrant centre, said the protest ended in the early hours of Tuesday.

Italian state RAI radio said migrants were protesting the alleged delay in medical assistance for a 25-year-old woman from Ivory Coast. The ill asylum-seeker died after an ambulance arrived.

The radio said 25 frightened workers locked themselves inside offices when migrants set fires outside the centre. No one was reported injured, and the protest ended after police mediated the dispute.

Il Sole-24 Ore radio said that before the protest, the centre’s management was being investigated after allegations of fraud and maltreatment.