The Latest: Far-right protests as refugee kids go to school

Greek authorities have blocked access to a northern primary school after threatening far-right protests over a handful of refugee children attending afternoon classes there.

Police buses were parked outside the school's main entrance Tuesday at Oreokastro, north of Thessaloniki, to keep away protesters, while the nine Kurdish children aged 7-11 from a nearby refugee camp were escorted in.

Scores of bodies of African migrants washed ashore in Libya, in the western city of Zawiya on the Mediterranean Sea, a spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent said on Tuesday.

The drownings — at least 74 bodies were found in Zawiya — are the latest tragedy at sea after migrant deaths rose to record levels along the Libya-Italy smuggling route over the past months.

Last week, Fabrice Leggeri, director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, said the Libya-Italy smuggling route across the Mediterranean has seen record numbers of migrant drownings in 2016.

According to Leggeri, migrant deaths along the central Mediterranean route stood at 4,579 for last year, which still might be much less than the true loss of life.