Survivors tell rescuers the rubber dinghies they were travelling in capsized in rough seas shortly after the vessels left Libya.
As many as 240 migrants have drowned in two shipwrecks off the coast of Libya, according to survivors.
The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said the 31 survivors said that their boats capsized in heavy seas.
Those rescued were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday.
UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said 29 people had survived the first sinking, but around 120 people had gone missing.
In a separate operation, two women found swimming at sea told rescuers another 120 people had died when their boat was wrecked.
"Many women, pregnant women and children were on board, and they were in the water for hours," said Ms Sami.
No bodies have so far been recovered from the sea.
In both cases, most of the people rescued appeared to have been sub-Saharan Africans, but Ms Sami said aid workers were still gathering information.
Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said 4,220 lives had been lost in the Mediterranean so far this year.
More than 140,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the start of 2016.
Libya has become a hub for illegal migration towards Europe. It lacks proper border controls and has plunged into chaos in recent years following the fall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
An agreement between the European Union and Turkey to stop migrants travelling to the Greek islands came into force in March, and since then Italy has seen an increase in people trafficking from Libya.
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