Subsection 1: Administrative detention centres

Subject to the provisions of article R. 744-8, foreign nationals detained pursuant to this title shall be placed or kept in establishments known as “administrative detention centres”, governed by this sub-section. .

The administrative detention centres are national in scope.They receive, within the limits of their capacity and regardless of the geographical jurisdiction of the prefect who made the decision to detain, foreign nationals placed or kept in administrative detention regardless of where they reside or where they were arrested. .

Administrative detention centres are set up, on the proposal of the minister responsible for immigration, by joint order of the minister responsible for social affairs, the minister responsible for immigration, the minister of the interior and the minister of justice.This order specifies the address of the centre and whether its surveillance is entrusted to the national police or the national gendarmerie and whether the centre is likely to accommodate families.It…

Administrative detention centres are placed under the responsibility of the territorially competent prefect and, in Paris, the police prefect, who appoints the head of the centre by decree, after agreement with the director general of the national police or the director general of the national gendarmerie.

Administrative detention centres offer foreign nationals detained hotel-type facilities and communal catering services. Their capacity may not exceed one hundred and forty places.

Administrative detention centres meet the following standards:1° A minimum usable surface area of ten square metres per detainee, including rooms and areas freely accessible during working hours;2° Non-mixed collective rooms, containing a maximum of six people;3° Sanitary facilities, including washbasins, showers and toilets, freely accessible and in sufficient number, i.e. one sanitary block for every ten detainees ;4° A freely accessible telephone for every fifty detainees;5° Premises and equipment required…

Foreign nationals whose detention is extended pursuant to the provisions of articles L. 742-5, L. 742-6 or L. 742-7, are kept in detention in a room reserved for them, until the end of the procedure.