BRUSSELS (AP) - In a dramatic response to Europe's gravest refugee crisis since World War II, NATO ordered three warships to sail immediately 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 underway, 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 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."
In a related effort, the military alliance will also step up its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities on the Turkish-Syrian border, Stoltenberg said.
The vessels of NATO Standing Maritime Group 2 "will start to move now" on orders from U.S. Air Force Gen. 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.
Stoltenberg said once the NATO brass makes its recommendations, the alliance will talk to the EU and decide how to proceed.
Breedlove said the mission specifics were still being written.
He said it was too early to say whether the NATO crews will be rescuing migrants in sinking or non-seaworthy boats - something the Greek and Turkish coast guards have been doing nightly for months.