Local police detained two people on Monday evening (May 26) after the disembarkation of 252 migrants from a vessel run by the NGO Solidaire at the port of Salerno in Campania, southern Italy.

The two -- a 19-year-old Egyptian citizen and a 17-year-old Sudanese national -- face charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. They are suspected of having acted as captains of a boat carrying 111 migrants of various nationalities that left the coast of Libya with the aim of reaching Italy's coast.

They were taken, respectively, to a local prison and to the center of an initial reception facility in Naples ahead of the validation of their detention by judicial authorities.

Nearly 100 underage migrants rescued by Solidaire

The duo were part of 139 people from Somalia, Eritrea, Mali, Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Syria. The group was traveling on three different rickety boats and were rescued by the German-flagged, NGO-run Solidaire vessel in international waters between Libya and Malta last week (May 22/23). The Soidaire subsequently rescued an additional 113 migrants from a fourth, overcrowded boat.

Many of the people rescued by the crew of the Solidaire were minors -- 98 of the passengers were under 18, most were travelling without family. The adults who reached Salerno included 127 men and 27 women from many different countries, including Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Egypt.

Other migrants identified them as skippers, police chief claims

"Our objective is to identify those who aid the illegal entry [of migrants]," the police chief of Salerno, Giancarlo Conticchio, said during a press conference after the two people were arrested. An investigation had been carried out by the local police flying squad and the naval unit of the finance police, said Conticchio. The suspects were "very likely already prepared for the navigation", the policer chief claimed. He also said that the "cooperation of some of the migrants on the ship who identified them as the smugglers [was] essential" to the investigation.

Migrant rights activists have criticized the practice of police in Italy and other European countries of opening criminal cases against migrants left in charge of navigating a boat by smugglers. Smugglers often put migrants who cannot afford the crossing in charge of the navigation, offering people desperate to cross a discount or free crossing in exchange.

In a recent report, PICUM -- a network of migrants rights organizations -- claimed that at least 91 miggrants were "criminalized on grounds of facilitation of irregular migration, smuggling and other charges" in 2024 in Europe.