The Latest: Romania rescues 119 asylum-seekers from Africa


              A Syrian refugee woman with babies walks towards the border with Serbia from the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while on their journey through the so-called Balkan migrant corridor, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016. Greek authorities say neighboring Macedonia has stopped Wednesday letting in refugees heading north to central Europe, leaving about 2,600 people stranded on the Greek side of the border. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
A Syrian refugee woman with babies walks towards the border with Serbia from the transit center for refugees near northern Macedonian village of Tabanovce, while on their journey through the so-called Balkan migrant corridor, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016. Greek authorities say neighboring Macedonia has stopped Wednesday letting in refugees heading north to central Europe, leaving about 2,600 people stranded on the Greek side of the border. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The Latest on the continuing influx of asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe (all times local):

12:50 p.m.

Romanian border police say they have rescued 119 asylum-seekers from Africa who were on an inflatable dingy in the Mediterranean, trying to reach Europe.

A statement said the police who were aboard the "Stefan cel Mare" ship, picked up the migrants, all men and 34 of them children, on Tuesday evening, due to dangerous conditions including low temperatures and overcrowding on their vessel.

The migrants were dehydrated and had signs of hypothermia. They came from Gambia, Senegal, Liberia, Mali, Sierre Leona and Guinea Bissau and were planning to travel to the Schengen area.

The Romanian ship docked Wednesday evening near the port of Lampedusa where the migrants were handed over to Italian authorities.

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12:45 p.m.

Croatia's president is meeting with her Polish counterpart for talks on the migrant crisis in Europe and on security.

The two-day visit by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic opened Thursday with a military ceremony before the Presidential Palace, where she later met with President Andrzej Duda.

Apart from discussing the massive arrivals by migrants, who also pass through Croatia, they discussed the region's security in face of a resurgent Russia and closer cooperation of countries between the Mediterranean and the Baltic seas.

Grabar-Kitarovic is also to meet with Poland's Prime Minister Beata Szydlo.

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12:10 p.m.

The British government has announced plans to allow an unspecified number of vulnerable refugee children to come to Britain to live. Details were not announced.

The announcement Thursday comes after charities have urged Britain to take in some 3,000 children believed to be at risk.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire says Britain will work with the United Nations refugee agency to identify "exceptional cases" in which unaccompanied children would be given shelter in Britain. The new program is in addition to the 4,000 refugees per year that Britain has agreed to settle.

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12:05 p.m.

Authorities in Greece have raised the death toll from a migrant boat sinking to 18, after recovering seven more bodies off the island of Samos in the eastern Aegean Sea.

The Coast Guard said Thursday that nine children were among the dead - four girls and five boys - while eight adult men and one woman also died.

Vessels from the European border agency Frontex were assisting the Greek Coast Guard in the search for others possibly missing, after 10 people were rescued.

Despite toughening European border controls, refugees and migrants have continued to travel to the Greek islands near the Turkish coast, at a rate of roughly 1,500 per day since the beginning of the year, braving the bad weather in dinghies and old wooden boats.

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11:00 a.m.

Berlin police say an activist working with asylum-seekers made up a story that a 24-year-old Syrian refugee died after waiting for days in the cold outside the city's central registration point.

Police began investigating after an activist posted on social media a Syrian man died of cardiac arrest after suffering from a high fever, accusing the city of negligence.

The posting quickly went viral and ignited a tempest of online indignation, but police were immediately skeptical, saying they had been unable to locate any body.

Police spokesman Michael Maass said Thursday the activist was tracked down and questioned, and admitted making up the story.

Maass wouldn't comment on the motivation of the activist, whose name wasn't released, saying "he has to explain that himself."

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10:00 a.m.

Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman says the country could deport between 60,000 and 80,000 asylum-seekers in coming years.

Ygeman told newspaper Dagens Industri that since about 45 percent of asylum applications are currently rejected, the country must get ready to send back tens of thousands of the 163,000 who sought shelter in Sweden last year.

"I think that it could be about 60,000 people, but it could also be up to 80,000," Ygeman was quoted as saying.

His spokesman, Victor Harju, confirmed the quotes Thursday, adding that the minister was simply applying the current approval rate to the record number of asylum-seekers that arrived in 2015. Harju adds: "That rate could of course change."

Germany and Sweden were the top destinations for asylum-seekers in Europe last year

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9:45 a.m.

Greece's coast guard says it is unclear how many people are missing from the latest migrant boat sinking off an eastern Greek island that has claimed at least 11 lives.

Ten people have been rescued from Thursday's sinking north of the island of Samos. The coast guard said the survivors were in shock and their accounts of how many people were on board were confused and vague.

Five of the survivors were found clinging to a piece of wood, leading authorities to believe that the vessel that sank was made of wood.

The bodies of our boys, three girls, three men and one woman were recovered from the sea. A search and rescue operation was ongoing in the area by the Greek coast guard and vessels from the European border patrol agency Frontex.

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9:05 a.m.

Greece's coast guard says at least 11 people, most of them children, have died in the latest migrant boat sinking off an eastern Greek island.

The circumstances of Thursday's sinking were unclear. The Greek coast guard and vessels from the European border patrol agency Frontex were carrying out a search and rescue operation off the island of Samos. Ten people were rescued, while 11 bodies - those of four boys, three girls, three men and one woman - were recovered.

The sinking is the second in two days. Another boat sank off the island of Kos on Wednesday, leaving seven dead, including two children.

Greece, with thousands of kilometers (miles) of coastline and islands very near the Turkish coast, is the main gateway into Europe for refugees and migrants.

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