Foreigner Detention: National Assembly Extends Limits

The measure is dear to the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau. The deputies voted on Wednesday, July 2, in favor of the extension of the duration of maintaining in the administrative detention center (CRA) of certain foreigners deemed dangerous.

The article was adopted with the votes of the central block and the national rally against the left. The solemn vote throughout the text, already adopted in the Senate, will take place on Tuesday afternoon.

The duration of retention in these centers, where foreigners can be locked up for their expulsion, is 90 days maximum, except for foreigners who have been condemned for terrorism: it can then go up to 210 days.

The text plans to extend this duration of 210 days to foreigners sentenced to a prohibition of the territory, to those whose “Behavior constitutes a threat of particular gravity for public order”as well as those who have been condemned for certain serious crimes or crimes (murder, rape, drug trafficking, aggravated theft with violence, etc.).

Also concerned, with the adoption of an amendment by the rapporteur (Les Républicains) Olivier Marleix, foreigners subject to an expulsion or administrative prohibition of the territory, reserved for serious cases.

This senatorial bill had emerged after the murder of Philippine, a founded student who died in Paris in 2024. The alleged murderer was a Moroccan being the subject of an obligation to leave the territory (OQTF), who had just left a Metz detention center after several years in prison.

The left denounces an unnecessary measurement

“A few days old, the administration held the consular pass” which would have allowed the“Mauge”said the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, in the hemicycle. “When it comes to negotiating foot on your way with countries of origin, every day is counted”he added.

But the left denounced an unnecessary measure. “If the State remains helpless to have a person under OQTF expelled after a incarceration of several years, who may believe for a moment that he will succeed better during the few months of additional retention? “, launched the MP (Socialist Party) of Paris Céline Hervieu.

The deputy (rebellious France) of northern Ugo Bernalicis proposed an amendment to send “Ten right -wing, far -right deputies and presidential minority” drawn in a “Thirty -day immersion internship” and Cra.

Mr. Marleix defended a text “Balanced and proportioned”while European law allows retention that can go as far as “Eighteen months”.

Several deputies, however, argued that the lengthening of the average retention time (33 days in 2024, double 2020 according to a report of associations) did not increase the expulsion rate.

In 2018, a law had doubled the maximum retention time of 45 to 90 days.

In heated debates, deputies also joined measures, sometimes rewritten, of the last “immigration” law, found to the Constitutional Council. As the placement under conditions of certain asylum seekers in detention, or the possibility of taking fingerprints and taking identity photos under stress.

The text also provides for counting in hours rather than the initial placement period in retention or in waiting areas, to maximize it when it starts for example at the end of the day.