A total of 881 migrants were plucked from the Mediterranean in two operations, Italian coastguard said on Monday.
The Irish ship Samuel Beckett ha rescued 242 migrants and the British ship Enterprise saved a further 639, according to Italian coastguard.
Som 131,000 refugees and migrants reached Italy by boat from January to September, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.
Italy is the second biggest arrival point for refugees and migrants after Greece, which 396,50 reached by boat in the first nine months of the year, UNHCR said.
Over half a million asylum-seekers have arrived in Europe so far this year and the figure is likely to top one million by the end of the year, according to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development think-tank.
European countries are locked in an increasingly bitter war of words over what to do with the influx of asylum-seekers landing on their doorstep from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
European Union leaders backed a controversial plan last month to redistribute 160,000 asylum-seekers across the bloc from Greece and Italy over the next two years and are now trying to persuade Turkey to join forces behind a radical plan aimed at stemming the influx.
