By Darrin Zamit Lupi

ABOARD THE TOPAZ RESPONDER, June 23 (Reuters) – Ships manned by humanitarian organisations, the Italian navy and coast guard helped rescue about 4,500 boat migrants on Thursday as calm seas returned to the Mediterranean, prompting a surge in departures from North Africa.

Rescue operations have been persevering with, an Italian coast guard spokesman mentioned. The corpse of a girl was taken from a big rubber boat, and the migrants have been collected from a complete of about 40 totally different vessels, he mentioned.

The Topaz Responder, a ship run by the Malta-based humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), mentioned earlier within the day that round two dozen migrant boats had been noticed within the sea about 20 nautical miles from the Libyan port metropolis of Sabratha.

“The mass movement is probably the result of week-long, unfavourable weather conditions” which have come to an finish, MOAS mentioned on Twitter.

The Topaz Responder picked up 382 sub-Saharan African migrants from three totally different giant rubber boats. The Bourbon Argos, a ship run by humanitarian group Doctors with out Borders, plucked 1,139 migrants from 10 boats, and two different humanitarian vessels picked up 156 extra.

The Italian navy mentioned it had rescued 515 from two dinghies, German humanitarian group Sea-Watch mentioned it had 100 on board, and the Italian coast guard, which coordinates rescue operations, mentioned it had deployed a number of boats.

An settlement between Turkey and the EU to cease migrant departures for the Greek islands has lowered boat arrivals by 98 % in the course of the first 5 months of the 12 months from the identical interval of 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mentioned.

But arrivals in Italy proceed at about the identical clip as final 12 months, and the lethal central Mediterranean route has already claimed 2,438 lives, IOM mentioned.

Italy has been on the entrance line of Europe’s worst immigration disaster since World War Two and now in its third 12 months. More than 320,000 boat migrants got here to Italy from North Africa in 2014-15.

As of Wednesday, 56,328 boat migrants had been dropped at Italy in 2016, a 5.5 % lower on the identical interval of final 12 months, in response to the Interior Ministry.

Nigerians, Eritreans and Gambians have been the highest three migrant nationalities this 12 months, the ministry mentioned, and greater than 125,000 at the moment are dwelling in Italian shelters. (Reporting by Darrin Zammit Lupi on the Topaz Responder migrant rescue ship and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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