European leaders saw the migrant emergency in Lampedusa with their own eyes this week.

Members of the LIBE Committee visited the island from Monday to Wednesday (June 19-21) to meet with Prefect Valerio Valenti, delegated commissioner for Italy's state of emergency on migration.

The meeting took place on Tuesday, a day after the 19 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) were able to assess the situation on Monday (June 19).

Fifteen people arrived on Sunday (June 18), while an additional 218 arrived Tuesday night (June 20).

EU politicians participate in search-and-rescue operation

Both EU and Italian officials alike are on a race against time to try to alleviate the center, which on Tuesday morning (June 20) registered 1,359 guests.

A total of 430 migrants were transferred by ferry on Monday (June 19) to the Empedocle port in Sicily, while another additional hundred migrants were transferred on Tuesday (June 20).

That morning, MEPs took part in a search-and-rescue operation conducted by the Italian coast guard's Dattilo ship.

The Delegation met afterward with members of search-and-rescue NGOs, including: Sea Watch, Emergency, Open Arms, Doctors Without Borders, ResQship and Sos Mediterranée.

Pelagie Mayor calls for special law

"Europe must have a special law that tackles all these problems head-on because they don't only concern the human rights of migrants but also those of the citizens of Lampedusa and Linosa," Mayor of the Pelagie islands Filippo Mannino told Dunja Mijatovic, Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, at the meeting in Lampedusa.

"Europe is helpless when facing migration. There are often talks about cohesion and cooperation among Member States, but in reality, there is no will to modify the Dublin Treaty, nor is there will to open humanitarian channels to have people travel safely and the problems of Lampedusa remain the same," he said.

This alarm was endorsed by the EU Commissioner for Human Rights: "The news of human rights violations of migrants and asylum-seekers are so frequent at this point that they it is difficult for public conscience to even register," said Mijatovic.

"The Member State governments of the Council of Europe, instead of considering each other responsible on the basis of shared standards, have tolerated and upheld the adoption of laws and policies that have stripped people in movement of their human rights," he said.