NATO orders warships into Aegean Sea

In a dramatic response to Europe's gravest refugee crisis since World War II, NATO ordered three warships to sail immediately on Thursday to the Aegean Sea to help end the deadly smuggling of asylum-seekers across the waters from Turkey to Greece.

"This is about helping Greece, Turkey and the European Union with stemming the flow of migrants and refugees and coping with a very demanding situation ... a human tragedy," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Yet even after the ships were told to get under way, NATO officials acknowledged uncertainties about the precise actions they would be performing - including whether they would take part in operations to rescue drowning migrants.

The arrival of more than a million people in Europe in 2015 - mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans - has plunged the 28-nation European Union into what some see as the most serious crisis in its history.

Despite winter weather, the onslaught of refugees crossing the Aegean has not let up. The International Organization for Migration said this week that 76,000 people - nearly 2,000 per day - have reached Europe by sea this year and 409 of them have died trying, most drowning in the cold, rough waters.

The number of arrivals in the first six weeks of 2016 is nearly 10 times as many as the same period last year. Most come from Turkey to Greece and then try to head north through the Balkans to the EU's more prosperous countries such as Germany and Sweden.

The decision on Thursday by NATO defense ministers in Brussels came in response to a joint request by three members - Turkey, Germany and Greece - for alliance participation in an international effort targeting the smugglers.

"This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats," Stoltenberg stressed at a news conference. "NATO will contribute critical information and surveillance to help counter human trafficking and criminal networks."

The vessels of NATO Standing Maritime Group 2 "will start to move now" on orders from US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, NATO's top commander in Europe, Stoltenberg said.

Breedlove said the ships should be at their Aegean destinations by Friday. NATO's website says the flotilla is composed of a German navy flagship, the Bonn, and two other ships, the Barbaros from Turkey and the Fredericton from Canada.

"(Until now) NATO has been mainly focused on how we can address the root causes, to try to stabilize the countries where many of the refugees are coming from," Stoltenberg said, mentioning Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan. "The new thing now is ... providing different kinds of military capabilities ... to provide direct help, direct support, to Turkish authorities, to Greek authorities, and to the European Union."

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in Brussels for two days of discussions with his Canadian and European colleagues, said NATO military authorities will draw up plans for how the alliance might further throttle human smuggling operations across the Aegean.

Greek Coast Guard officers move a baby from a dinghy carrying migrants to the Ayios Efstratios Coast Guard vessel, during a rescue operation in the open sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday.Giorgos Moutafis / Reuters