Tempers flare among migrants on Kos as they wait to be processed by Greek officials

Migrants on the Greek island of Kos have brawled with each other as tempers flared while they waited to be processed aboard a passenger ship moored nearby.

The ship has sat empty since it arrived more than 24 hours ago.

The migrants, a group of about 50 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, threw stones and exchanged blows with each other in the intense mid-summer heat as they waited outside the island's main police station.

Riot police stood by, but did not intervene.

In the quayside The Eleftherios Venizelos, a passenger ship chartered to house and process refugees, has sat empty for the past day.

Even once it begins operation, the migrants have little chance of getting aboard the ship as priority will be given to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing their country's civil war and have greater rights under international law than economic migrants.

The Eleftherios Venizelos is a car ferry belonging to ANEK Lines which operates routes to the Greek islands and across the Adriatic to Italy.

Early on Saturday, about 300 Syrians had gathered on the quayside in the hope of getting aboard the ship.

About 2,500 people are due to be housed and processed on it when it begins operations.

Nearly a quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Of these, about half have come to the Greek islands, with numbers surging in the summer when calmer weather makes the crossing marginally less risky.