More than 400 migrants saved from the Mediterranean were headed for the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on Friday aboard a rescue vessel belonging to the Doctors without Borders medical charity.
Earlier this week, Pozzallo's mayor Luigi Ammatuna attacked Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi, saying the city had been left to handle the migrant arrivals unaided.
"We have been left alone by the state to tackle the migrant emergency," Ammatuna said.
Also on Friday, Libyan coastguard rescued 145 migrants from a rubber dinghy northeast of the city of Zuwara, Libyan navy spokesman Ayyub Qasem told Adnkronos International (AKI).
The migrants were taken to Zuwara after a fishing boat alerted coastguard to the rubber dinghy, whose engine had broken down, he said.
"The migrants are from various African and Arab countries, 26 are Moroccan and four of them are women," Qasem told AKI.
"They are all in good health," he added.
An estimated 250,000 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea this year - only slightly more than in the same period of 2015 - most arriving in Italy and Greece, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said this week.
Over a million people reached Europe last year, escaping conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia according to IOM and the United Nations.
