for by article L.551-1 of the CESDA. They include the right to be assisted by a lawyer and provision of information on the existence of a legal aid association. It is up to the foreigners themselves to understand the connection between the legal aid to which they are entitled and the exercise of a remedy against the placement decision. However, the inspectors have often witnessed astonishment on the part of foreigners when they are informed of their right to be assisted by a lawyer: “Why? I am not an offender!” Certain centres notify detainees of their rights whatever their situation. Others draw a distinction according to whether the person was arrested for questioning in the department where the CRA is located or in another. In the latter CRAs the officers only give notification of their rights to detainees arrested in other departments, asserting that notification of rights in detention was effectively carried out at the same time as notification of the detention placement order (APR). This practice is ascertained in the CRA of Toulouse 249 for example, with regard to persons arrested for questioning in Haute-Garonne. The notification operation consists of getting the person concerned to sign the notification form drafted in the language that they read, which includes a standard phrase setting out their rights. They also sign another form indicating that they have been informed that they have a five-day period in order to apply for asylum following the placement. There are nevertheless cases in which the information issued to detainees is purely formal, without any real notification; thus in the CRA of Mayotte250, the staff contented themselves with a signature in one of the columns of the so-called APRF register. No notification of rights with regard to asylum was made. The prefect’s decision was handed over without any other comment. When interpreters intervene, they read both documents. In any case, the inspectors have ascertained that the duration of the notification procedure is no greater than five minutes, and that in most cases it hardly takes three. In the CRA of Palaiseau, the inspectors ascertained that a Russian, who did not understand French, was notified of his rights in a period of less than three minutes; in another CRA, they reported that a person refused to sign the document of notification of the right to apply for asylum “because she did not want to apply for asylum”, while another was under the impression that signing the latter would give them the right to asylum… When foreigners whose residence papers are not in order are taken to detention facilities for illegal immigrants (LRA), they are notified of their rights before their arrival at the LRA by the service involved, usually the border police, or more rarely by the gendarmerie or another police department. Indeed, LRAs never have registries. On the detainee’s arrival at the LRA no new notification is issued and no mention of any notification setting out their rights is entered in the detention register. Other media for provision of information Article R.553-4 of the CESEDA provides for the existence of rules and regulations which recall “the rights and obligations of foreign detainees, as well as the practical terms of exercise of their rights by the latter” in each CRA. These rules are posted on noticeboards in shared areas in the most commonly used languages: English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese etc. This information may make up for the rapidity of the initial notification, on the condition that the person concerned speaks and reads one of these languages and that they have easy access to the shared areas where the rules are displayed, which is not always the case. 249 250 Inspection of 17th to 20th March 2009. Report available at www.cglpl.fr. th th Inspection of 26 May to 4 June 2009. Report available at www.cglpl.fr 157