Around 16,500 foreign nationals were held in detention centres across mainland France in 2025, but more than 60 percent were released without being deported, according to a report published on Tuesday.
The annual report, conducted by the organisations Forum réfugiés, France terre d’asile, Groupe SOS Solidarités, La Cimade and Solidarité Mayotte, found that 16,467 people were detained in detention centres in 2025, compared with 16,228 the previous year.
The detention centres are mainly used for two groups; people found to have committed immigration offences in France such as overstaying a visa or foreign nationals who are reported after serving a jail sentence in France.
Not everybody found to have committed an immigration offence will be sent to a detention centre; the most common course is to be issued with an OQTF (Obligation de quitter le territoire français) which is a notice advising you to leave France by a certain date. People who stay after that date may end up in a detention centre.
READ ALSO: OQTF – What happens when someone is given an ‘order to leave France’?
France introduced its first detention centre in 1984 and there are now 22 in mainland France, known as Centres de Rétention Administrative (CRA).
In 2025, the report showed that Algerians made up the largest group of detainees at 30 percent, followed by Tunisians (11 percent) and Moroccans (10 percent).
The organisations said this reflected a “prioritisation of certain nationalities”, although those nationalities also represent the largest groups of non-EU foreigners living in France.
In France’s overseas territories, 27,568 people were detained, with 96 percent of cases recorded in Mayotte – among those detained in Mayotte were 3,074 minors.
Nearly half of all detainees (46.3 percent) were placed in detention following police checks, while 29 percent were detained after being released from prison.
The organisations behind the report described 2025 as “one of the most worrying years for the rights of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty” since detention centres were first introduced in 1984.
They highlighted a sharp rise in the average length of detention, which reached just over 33 days in 2025, compared with nearly 17 days in 2020.
More than 2,000 people were held for the maximum legal period of 90 days. Under current rules, only people convicted of terrorism-related offences can be detained for up to 180 days.
According to the report, “more than half of deportations take place within the first 20 days and around 85 percent within the first 45 days”, while fewer than 10 percent occur after 60 days.
Overall, only 36 percent of detainees were deported in 2025, down from 39 percent in 2024.
The organisations argued that detention centres were increasingly failing in their stated purpose of enabling rapid deportations.
“The CRA centres are being diverted from their primary purpose, namely rapid deportation, demonstrating the failure of the ‘lock up more to deport more’ approach,” the report said.
The maximum detention period could soon increase further under proposed legislation backed by the French government. A bill introduced by a Renaissance MP and examined by the Senate on Wednesday would extend the maximum detention period for certain convicted individuals from three months to seven months (210 days).
