Four immigrants escaped from the administrative detention centre (CRA) in Paris’s 12th arrondissement. Police quickly recaptured three of them nearby, while one person remains at large.
According to police sources, eight detainees tried to escape around 2am during the night of May 9 to May 10. Only four successfully made it out by crossing the metal rooftops of the facility, which is currently undergoing renovation work. The other four were stopped by law enforcement during the attempt.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into “escaping and attempted group escape from an administrative detention measure”.
This is not the first escape from the Vincennes detention centre. On April 27, 10 detainees escaped through a smoke ventilation hatch in the same facility. Surveillance cameras detected the escape and three individuals were quickly recaptured, while seven remain missing.
Other incidents have also occurred in recent years. In June 2024, 14 immigrants escaped through the fenced roof of the Vincennes centre, and only one was later found.
In December 2023, 11 detainees escaped after forcing open a window, cutting through fencing, jumping down several metres and climbing over the final perimeter wall using blankets placed over the barbed wire.
Similar escapes have taken place elsewhere in France. In May 2024, two separate breakouts occurred within 24 hours: Seven people escaped from the CRA in Lille-Lesquin and 10 others fled from the detention centre in Sète.
In April 2024, 10 men escaped from the CRA in Oissel, in Seine-Maritime, after using bedsheets to climb walls and tearing through a protective net. Three were later arrested.
Administrative detention centres in France are facilities where undocumented immigrants can be detained while awaiting deportation if authorities believe they may evade removal procedures. The maximum detention period is generally 90 days, or 180 days for individuals convicted of terrorism-related offences.
According to the NGO La Cimade, which works with uprooted people, especially undocumented immigrants in France, more than 16,000 people were held in French detention centres in 2024, most of them from North Africa.
Including overseas territories such as Mayotte, Guadeloupe, Réunion and Guyane, the total rises to around 40,000 detainees, it said.
