NATO to Expand Activities to Territorial Waters of Greece, Turkey

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the NATO's efforts aimed at helping both Ankara and Athens to cope with human trafficking and criminal networks, fueling the ongoing migrant crisis.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — NATO will expand the activities of its ships deployed to the Aegean sea to the territorial waters of both Greece and Turkey to help them in tackling illegal migration, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday.

On February 11, defense ministers of the 28 NATO member states decided to send alliance's naval ships to the Aegean Sea to monitor the flow of migrants between Turkey and Greece.

"NATO took swift decisions to deploy ships to the Aegean Sea to support our Allies Greece and Turkey, as well as the EU's border agency FRONTEX, in their efforts to tackle the migrant and refugee crisis. NATO ships are already collecting information and conducting monitoring in the Aegean Sea. Their activity will now be expanded to take place also in territorial waters," Stoltenberg said, as quoted in a press release published on NATO website said.

Stoltenberg added that the alliance's efforts aimed at helping both Ankara and Athens to cope with human trafficking and criminal networks, fueling the ongoing migrant crisis.

The EU states are currently struggling to deal with a refugee influx, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Frontex recorded more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings into the bloc in 2015. Greece is the main transit route for refugees coming across the Aegean Sea from Turkey.