In Germany, migrants' long journeys turn to long waits
BERLIN-- Each day hundreds of migrants line up outside the main registration center in Berlin to apply for asylum. Their long walk may be over, but their long wait has just begun. They take a number and wait to be called.
Some have waited for weeks. Their frustration turns to anger, and anger to fistfights among the men in the crowd. Police had to step in after one man was knocked unconscious.
The center can only process a few dozen of applications a day, and thousands more are still arriving.
It took Lubna and her family a month to make it to Germany from Damascus in Syria. "We are waiting now for 18 days," Lubna says. "Some people, like my friend, [wait] 30 days."
Her number is BN2, which she has memorized. She says she gave the number to all of her friends, and asked them to watch for it as well.
Inside the registration center, migrants face a series of questions: where they're from, whether their lives were truly in danger, and what proof they have. Germany has made it clear that migrants fleeing poverty -- instead of war -- will not be allowed to stay.
The crisis leaves Germany with several problems: what to do next with the hundreds of thousands who qualify for asylum, and how to deport the hundreds of thousands who do not.
Successful applicants are provided with food and housing, and some help finding a job. Those who are rejected are ordered to leave the country. If they refuse to leave, they're arrested, taken to the airport and sent home.
