2,000 arrive on Italian island

ALMOST 2,000 people arrived by boat on the Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya and Tunisia over the weekend, the UN refugee agency has said.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said about 1,800 of the arrivals set sail from Janzour outside the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Adrian Edwards said the group included migrants from other African countries and there were 200 women and 30 children.