EU response plans on migration crisis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is putting in place a package of measures to address sharply increasing numbers of people claiming asylum in the bloc, often after dangerous crossings of the Mediterranean. Here are elements of the main plans: NAVAL MISSION Following the drowning of some 800 people on a single boat off Libya in April, the EU effectively reversed a sharp cutback in warships conducting search and rescue operations; since June, a naval operation has been targeting people-smugglers. Plans to roam far into Libyan waters are on hold, seeking U.N. support. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE The EU has paid for food, medicine, shelter and other needs for migrants in countries which have asked for it. Italy and Greece will get nearly half of 2.4 billion euros to help with the crisis over several years. An initial 30 million euros is due in Greece, where a government consumed with a debt crisis surprised many by not triggering the EU disaster relief system, as Hungary did to procure tents urgently. Britain and France have had funds to deal with migrants at the Channel Tunnel. RELOCATION Other EU states aim to take 24,000 asylum seekers from Italy and 16,000 from Greece, modifying the EU's Dublin mechanism by which asylum claims are processed in the first country reached. Leaders rejected binding quotas proposed by the EU executive. Voluntary pledges have fallen short so far, at 32,000 in total. People should start being transferred soon. The Commission also aims to have a permanent relocation system agreed this year. Relocations under the pilot scheme will start soon. Syrians and others with high chances of securing asylum have priority. RESETTLEMENT Having rejected mandatory national quotas to take in 20,000 refugees direct from U.N. sites outside Europe, states pledged to take 22,000 in total in a pilot scheme. It will start soon and may expand, in cooperation with U.N. agencies who help some four million Syrians as well as millions of other refugees. HOTSPOTS Accompanying the relocation of asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece, other EU states will staff "hotspots" in Catania and Piraeus to identify and fingerprint migrants. Northern countries complain that failure to do so has broken EU rules and let many travel over open EU borders to claim asylum in northern Europe. DEPORTATION Economic migrants whose claims for refugee status fail will be returned home more quickly. The EU is working with countries to ensure they take more people back. It is drawing up a shared list of "safe" states, notably Balkan EU membership candidates, for whose citizens deportation will be almost automatic. AID The EU will use its development aid budget to reduce poverty and other factors that drive migration, to encourage governments to curb people-smuggling gangs and dissuade their citizens from migrating, and to cooperate with EU deportation procedures. There will be a summit with the African Union on Malta on Nov. 11-12 and with western Balkan countries in the next few weeks. FOREIGN MISSIONS Officials have steered away from suggestions the EU should set up facilities to process asylum applications in Africa or the Middle East. Among other things, some say they could be vulnerable to attack and hard to manage. However, EU embassies are to have immigration officers to monitor migration trends. The EU is working with international agencies in Niger to inform migrants about to head for Libya of the risks they will run and their low chances of being allowed to settle in Europe. LEGAL MIGRATION The EU executive is reviewing schemes to issue EU visas to skilled workers as among the safe routes for immigration. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald @macdonaldrtr; editing by Andrew Roche)