The public prosecutor's office filed a request to remove the Left Party's Diether Dehm's immunity as a federal parliamentarian, German newspaper "tageszeitung" (TAZ) reported on Monday.

Authorities accused him of facilitating the illegal entry of an African migrant in August, which prosecutors say is ground enough to remove his legal protection.

Earlier this month, Dehm confirmed that he had taken a young African refugee first to stay in his holiday home on Italy's Lake Maggiore. He then transported the boy through Switzerland to Germany, where he was reunited with his father.

The 66-year-old leftist politician told German daily "Bild" that the boy had not registered with border officials upon entering.

"I was at peace with myself, and I still am now," Dehm said.

Dehm appointed Paul Gauweiler, a conservative former MP of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), as his legal representative. He described Gauweiler as a "good friend and blood brother."

The Left Party has previously been targeted by federal authorities, including the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic spy agency.

In 2012, business newspaper "Handelsblatt" reported that more than one-third of the Left Party's MPs had been under surveillance for suspected extremist views, an allegation the party denies.

Open doors

Mass irregular migration to the EU last year sowed the seeds of a political crisis in Germany and the rest of Europe.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's "open door" policy towards migrants fleeing war in the Middle East prompted her opponents and even allies to criticize her approach to migration.

The Left Party maintains an open position to refugees, especially those escaping the brutal conflict in Syria. However, individual members have been accused of using anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Germany is set to process more than one million asylum applications in 2016, according to the Federal Migration Office.

ls/rg (AFP, dpa, TAZ)