A Norwegian minister has faced online ridicule for jumping off a rescue boat into the Mediterranean to see what it's like to be a refugee.

Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug travelled to the Greek island of Lesbos to see rescuers' work and also experience the situation from the migrants' perspective, The Local website reports.

"You can't put yourself into the same situation as the refugees but you can see it from that perspective [and experience] how it is to be in the water that way," she was quoted as saying. She admitted, however, that migrants "don't have a survival suit, so it's not comparable".