MPs in France’s National Assembly have approved measures extending the detention period for ‘dangerous’ foreign nationals to seven months.
French MPs have adopted a bill aimed at extending the administrative detention period of undocumented foreigners who are deemed to be ‘dangerous’ or a threat to France’s national security.
The measure, long championed by the right, which has faced a bumpy legislative journey following a ruling by the Constitutional Council last summer now goes forward to the Senate.
The government-backed bill was approved by 345 lawmakers to 177.
The extended detention period is for foreign nationals who meet all three of the following criteria:
- the individual is subject to a removal order;
- they have been convicted in the past to at least three years in prison for crimes against persons;
- and they pose a “real, present, and particularly serious” threat to public order.
Last summer, a similar extension provision was struck down by the Constitutional Council, which deemed it disproportionate.
This prompted lawmakers to reintroduce it with more restrictive wording that took the ruling into account. It will affect “only a few dozen people a year,” according to Yvelines MP Charles Rodwell, who proposed the new bill.
Undocumented foreigners who have exhausted their right of appeal and have been served with an OQRF (notice to quite the country) may be detained in a centre de rétention administrative (CRA) pending deportation if there is a risk they will abscond. The current maximum detention period is 90 days, or 180 days for those convicted of terrorist offences.
More than 40,000 people were held in CRAs in 2024, according to reports.
As well as the detention measures, it includes measures aimed at strengthening the anti-terrorism arsenal, with a psychiatric component, creating a “psychiatric examination order” issued by a prefect, to compel individuals to undergo such an examination in order to prevent terrorist acts.
The bill also provides for the creation of “terrorist preventive detention”, allowing individuals to be placed in a treatment centre under certain conditions following a prison sentence, as is the case for certain other crimes.
