Greece restricts shipping near migrant islands over 'illegal' flows

Greece's defence ministry on Thursday announced a week-long shipping ban around Aegean islands facing a migration surge from Turkey, excepting only EU and NATO patrol vessels and registered commercial ships.

The ministry said the ban to March 12 around the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos was designed "to halt illegal migration flows by sea".

"An exception is made for Frontex and NATO ships, and ships conducting commercial activity that are equipped with the required valid seaworthiness documents from their flag state," the defence ministry said.

Greece is attempting to hold back a migration surge by land and sea from neighbouring Turkey that began last week after Ankara said it would no longer stop asylum seekers from entering Europe.

Hundreds of migrants and refugees have landed on the islands since the weekend. On the island of Lesbos, a navy ship was sent this week to house around 400 of them, as the local camp is filled far beyond capacity.

The new arrivals have exacerbated an already combustible situation on the three Greek islands off the Turkish coast.

Lesbos hosts more than 19,000 refugees and migrants, crammed into squalid conditions around a camp built to house fewer than 3,000, a legacy of the 2015 migration crisis.