The latest emergency in Europe’s migrant crisis is the mountains and mountains of paperwork: The European Union reports that more than 770,000 asylum applications were on hold in September, and almost one third of asylum-seekers have been waiting more than three months for a decision. According to the AP, it will take about a year just to deal with the backlog — and hundreds of people are arriving by the day. Some member states, such as Germany — the end destination for most of the migrants and refugees — are trying to speed up the asylum-approval process by creating special centers and quickly processing and deporting people who do not qualify, namely those from “safe countries” in the Balkans. Nearly 800,000 migrants have crossed the sea to reach Europe so far this year, and experts predict millions more will make the journey before the end of 2016.
