Moroccan Migrants Face High Detention Rates in France, Report Finds

In total, 40,592 people were detained in CRAs in 2024, compared to 46,955 the previous year, reveal the five associations. Their joint report specifies that 24,634 were in overseas territories (mainly in Mayotte) and 16,228 in mainland France, reports RFI. In metropolitan France, the majority of detainees were of Algerian nationality (32%), followed by Tunisians (12%), Moroccans (11%), and Romanians (4.4%), it is further specified.

The five associations welcome the reduction in the number of irregular foreigners most frequently detained in Administrative Detention Centers (CRA). However, they are concerned about the increase in the average duration of detention. Last year, the average detention period was nearly 33 days, 5 days more compared to 2023. "Our associations observe daily the impact of increasingly long periods of confinement on the mental and physical health of detained individuals and on the level of tension in the CRAs. Desperate gestures, suicide attempts, acts of self-harm, violence [...]," describes the report.

"We observe that people are detained much longer than before. Sometimes up to 90 days," specified Justine Girard, national detention manager at La Cimade. The wish of the senatorial right, "the primary force in the Upper House and a springboard for promoting the anti-immigration ideas of Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (Les Républicains)," is to extend this detention period to 210 days. A bill was adopted on first reading by the Senate on March 18, 2025. This text proposes to extend the maximum detention period to 210 days for foreigners also convicted of a crime or offense punishable by at least five years of imprisonment.

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The five associations also denounce an attempt to evict them from the CRAs. The Interior Minister accuses them of being "judge and party." On May 12, a new bill submitted by Senator Marie-Carole Ciuntu (LR) will be examined, aiming to entrust their tasks to the French Office of Immigration and Integration, an organization under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior. This bill "aims to diminish people’s ability to exercise their rights, particularly to appeals," denounced La Cimade. Faced with difficulties in fulfilling "its missions under good conditions," La Cimade withdrew in January from the CRA of Mesnil-Amelot, the largest in France.