Your rights in an immigration detention centre: lawyer, interpreter, doctor, visits, asylum (2026)

Article L. 743-9 of the CESEDA requires the judge of the judicial court — the former liberty and custody judge — to remind the person of his rights and to satisfy himself that he has been fully informed of his rights and put in a position to assert them from his arrival at the place of detention.

Not every failure leads to release. Where the forms prescribed by law have been breached or substantial formalities not observed, Article L. 743-12 allows release only if the irregularity substantially affected the foreign national's rights, without their effectiveness having been restored before the close of the hearing.

The argument must be documented: the time of arrest, the time of notification, the language used, whether an interpreter was present, when the lawyer could be contacted. Article L. 743-11 also makes inadmissible, of the court's own motion, irregularities predating a hearing that has already extended detention: those grounds must be raised at the first hearing. See immigration detention.

The telephone. Centres have freely accessible telephones, at a rate of one handset for every fifty detained persons. As a general rule, a personal telephone without a camera may be kept; the terms are set by the internal rules.

Visits. Centres have a room for receiving visits from families and consular authorities. The days, times and conditions of access are set by the internal rules: Article R. 744-12 provides that those rules, drawn up by the head of the centre and approved by the prefect, organise daily life and remind detained persons of their rights and duties. Bring an identity document and call before travelling.

The CESEDA also opens access to places of detention to members of Parliament, to representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and to accredited humanitarian associations. The visiting hours of the future Mérignac detention centre have not been published; see the page for families.

The register. Article L. 744-2 of the CESEDA requires a register to be kept in every place of detention: the civil status of detained persons, the conditions of their placement and of their continued detention. Part of the procedural file, it makes it possible to reconstruct arrival times, movements and transfers; it is requested where the chronology is in dispute.

The Inspector General of places of deprivation of liberty. Established by the Act of 30 October 2007, this independent inspector visits places where people are deprived of their liberty, including detention centres, and may be seised of matters within his remit. The law removes correspondence exchanged with him from the administration's control: a letter addressed to him may neither be opened nor read. Writing to him does not replace an appeal, but it makes it possible to report unacceptable conditions of detention.

Minors

Article L. 741-5 of the CESEDA, as worded by the Act of 26 January 2024, provides that a foreign national under eighteen may not be the subject of a detention decision, whether unaccompanied or with his parents. Those provisions apply in Mayotte from 1 January 2027. Where age is disputed, minority must be established without delay: birth certificate, passport, substitute judgment, decision of a children's judge.

Vulnerability and disability

Article L. 741-4 of the CESEDA requires the detention decision to take account of the foreign national's state of vulnerability and of any disability. Pregnancy, chronic illness, psychiatric care, age: these matters must be reported on arrival, documented and brought to the judge's attention. A failure to take vulnerability into account is a ground for challenging the placement.

The firm requests the entire procedural file and checks the chronology and the effectiveness of each right. It drafts written submissions and argues the case before the judge of the judicial court of Bordeaux, at the centre or by videoconference. It examines in parallel the appeal against the OQTF, an asylum claim if one is conceivable, and the appeal against the order. Maître Gabriel Lassort has been a member of the Bordeaux Bar since 2018 and of that Bar's Institut de défense des étrangers. No outcome can be guaranteed.