Most of the 910 Kurdish immigrants dumped on the Riviera by people smugglers at the weekend may ask for asylum and will be given eight-day permits, the French authorities said yesterday.
An Interior Ministry statement said safe-conduct documents would be given to refugees who had identified themselves as Iraqi Kurds.
Only about a dozen identified themselves as being from other origins and their situation was under study, officials said.
During the eight days, those with safe conduct papers may apply for long-term asylum without any assurance that it will be granted, the statement said.
Critics of France's immigration policies have often said immigrants use the eight-day period to go underground in France or illegally seek to enter other EU countries.
The refugees have so far been detained in an army camp near where they landed on Saturday after the vessel that brought them from Turkey ran aground.
Turkey accused France yesterday of unjustly holding it responsible for the plight of the refugees and said Ankara's role in the traffic of illegal immigrants was being exaggerated.
It was not immediately clear when the refugees would be free to leave. Those who wished to stay in government accommodation during the eight days could do so, the Interior Ministry said. "Once they have the documents, they can move about freely for eight days. If they don't ask for asylum or otherwise regularise their situation within that period, then they become illegal immigrants."
France pledged on Monday not to repatriate the Kurds to Iraq but the Interior Minister, Mr Daniel Vaillant, hinted earlier that some might be sent to Turkey or Greece if it was proved they had embarked there for France.
The refugees were dumped at night on a beach at Saint Raphael by a leaking cargo vessel, the East Sea, which ploughed on to rocks after its crew abandoned ship and disappeared.
Relations between the new arrivals and their French hosts soured rapidly with some of the refugees blocking the entrance to their temporary camp on Monday to pressure France to improve their living conditions and start asylum proceedings.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said in a statement the ship had been searched when it anchored at the southern port of Mersin on January 16th and was found to be empty.
It said the vessel had departed from Turkish waters on January 17th apparently bound for Syria and under observation by coastguards who suspected it might be used to carry illegal migrants.