Italian police arrested two alleged smugglers aboard a migrant boat that capsized on July 12 off the island of Lampedusa, resulting in the death of a 4-year-old child. Seven people remain missing, including three adults and four minors.

The group was rescued by the Dattilo coast guard ship while it was transporting migrants from the Lampedusa hotspot to Reggio Calabria.

Two young men from Sierra Leone arrested

Police arrested Mohamed C. and Joseph K., aged 19 and 20, on July 19. The two Sierra Leonean men were arrested for aiding and abetting clandestine migration that resulted in death.

The Dattilo ship ultimately brought around 810 central African migrants to Italy's southern region of Calabria. About 500 were transported from the Lampedusa hotspot, while some 300 were rescued along the way.

Smugglers 'made use of a wider network'

The men under investigation "made use of a wider network, in synergy with others, operating both on the Tunisian and Italian coasts and tasked with overseeing the departure and arrival phases", the arrest warrant stated.

C. was arrested immediately upon arrival in Reggio Calabria, while K. was arrested in Lampedusa, where he remained after the shipwreck for health reasons.

The two men were recognized by migrants aboard the ship who helped reconstruct the moments prior to the capsizing of the boat, according to investigators.

According to the investigative judge, the men were charged with the transportation of the migrants "through a boat that was, due to its size and structural characteristics, absolutely inadequate to face the journey given the number of people transported [about 45 or 50]."

"This circumstance was surely enough to put the passengers at serious risk of dying or at least being harmed," the arrest warrant stated.