NATO steps in to deter human trafficking

BRUSSELS — With more than 1 million migrants having reached Europe in the last year and many more on the way, NATO stepped in to the crisis for the first time Thursday, saying it would deploy ships to the Aegean Sea in an attempt to stop smugglers.

But while the hastily made decision reflected the growing urgency of the situation, it was not clear that it would have much practical effect on the flow of refugees fleeing Syria’s five-year civil war: The alliance said it would not seek to block the often rickety and overcrowded migrant vessels or turn them back, and military officials were scrambling to determine precisely what role their warships would play.

NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that “this is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats.”

Gen. Philip Breedlove of the U.S. Air Force, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe, subsequently told reporters here that his staff was figuring out the rules of engagement and how to deal with refugee boats that are intercepted.

“This mission has literally come together in the last 20 hours, and I have been tasked now to go back and define the mission,” Breedlove said. “We had some very rapid decisionmaking, and now we have to go out to do some military work.”

Adding military muscle to what has largely been treated in Europe as a humanitarian issue reflected concerns across the Continent that further waves of refugees are likely to head toward Greece and beyond in coming weeks amid intensified fighting in Syria and improving weather.

Some international aid groups quickly criticized the NATO decision. Doctors Without Borders described it as shortsighted and misplaced. “How many deaths will it take before Europe, Turkey and others focus their energy on providing humanitarian solutions rather than deterrence measures that clearly miss the point?” the group said in a statement.

Calling on NATO to help patrol the Aegean was first raised as a possibility Monday during talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, whose country is the main destination for the migrants reaching Europe, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which is confronting a new mass of refugees along its border with Syria.

Officials said three NATO vessels, from Canada, Germany and Turkey, were being deployed to the Aegean Sea under the command of Jorg Klein, a German rear admiral. The group will focus on monitoring the waterways and on providing intelligence to the European Union.

There was no indication that any vessels from the United States would participate directly in the effort.