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The national reception capacity and the
National Commission for the Admission of Refugees (NCAR)?

At the end of 2004, France’s countrywide capacity for receiving refugees consisted of 217 refugee reception centres and 27 provisional accommodation centres. These centres have 15470 places for asylum seekers and 1023 for refugees. This compares with 3656 places for asylum seekers and 1028 for refugees in June 1998. Two transit centres at Villeurbanne and Créteil are part of the national capacity.

The administration of these centres is set out in :

- Circular 91-22 of 19th December 1991 covering the reorganisation of these centres across France
- Circular 99-399 of 8th July 1999 covering the admission of people to these centres.

The NCAR decides on who should be admitted for the whole of France. The NCAR is controlled by the Department for Population and Migrants (DPM) and the Office of International Migrations (OMI). In parallel the departmental commissions for admission and for guidance make available 25% of the departmental stock if it is available.