More than 500 boat people have been rescued or landed off the southern coast of Italy since yesterday afternoon, officials said.
The Italian coastguard scrambled overnight to rescue passengers in peril aboard four boats off the Sicilian coast, they said today.
A total of 466 migrants were plucked to safety, including women and children, from a trawler boat that was adrift and a large dinghy that was sinking.
In addition, another 118 people landed on the island of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost point and a major gateway for economic migrants and refugees entering the European Union.
Italian police escorted them to a temporary shelter.
Good weather and renewed unrest in the Middle East and the southern Mediterranean has led to a surge of migrants arriving in Italy in recent months.
Many of them come from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East or Central Asia.
Lampedusa is closer to north Africa than it is the Italian mainland.
More than 22,000 migrants have arrived on Italy's southern coast since the beginning of this year, nearly three times more than throughout 2012.
