Congo visa (DRC) and tourist deportations by DGM
In the middle of this past April 2025 we had to cancel “insitu” our trip through the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo because we were deported out of the country by the DGM (Direction Generale des Migrations) when we landed at the Kinshasa airport. The justification of the DGM at the airport was that we had obtained our Congo visa illegally.
Travel and obtaining Congo tourist visas
It is clear that a country like the Democratic Republic of Congo does not make it easy for the traveler who wishes to visit the country. In these years that we have been promoting and offering different trips in the country we have suffered in our flesh all the possible complications that can happen.
Soccer, rebels and deportations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
In this personal post I share some hot thoughts after being expelled along with another traveler from the country. We are not the only ones as I have been hearing these days. Let’s start.
Embassy of D.R. Congo in London
It is said that one of the reasons why the DRC embassy in the UK is denying visas to British citizens (the same as in other embassies), is among other things, is caused by the “visit Rwanda” sponsor on the shirts of some Premier League clubs such as Arsenal. There are also PSG or Bayern Munich. I do not know if this is true or not, or if they are half-truths.
I do know, that two British passengers of mine had their passports held at the DRC embassy in London for two months to deny them a tourist visa for no consistent or obvious reason. They made them go several times in person, incur extra expenses and finally they were not given the Congo tourist visa. Fine, they are well within their rights.
It is fair to say that in other DR Congo embassies in Asia, US, Africa and Europe all went well.
DGM against tourism in Congo
I don’t know if any Spanish or Dutch soccer team wears “visit Rwanda” on their shirts, but I do know that we were deported from the DR Congo the other day in Kinshasa with another Dutch passenger for no reason. But I do know that we were deported from DR Congo the other day in Kinshasa along with another Dutch passenger for no reason, as we had legal visas obtained in an official embassy of the DRC. I am learning that we are not the first ones.
On our flight back to Brussels we were expected by the Belgian police to be detained (by simple protocol) because they had been informed by the DRC that we were criminals with false documents trying to enter the country illegally. Wow.
¿Who is the DGM?
The DGM means Direction Generale des Migrations. These officials become the biggest nightmare of any traveler who wants to travel through Congo. The legal Congo visa in your passport is useless beyond Kinshasa. In order to travel around the country you need a Mission Order that the DGM will stamp in each village. But it is not enough either. In each city and each village the DGM will keep you at least one or two hours to check all passports, visas and stamps of the Order of Mission. All good, that’s their job. What I think is not part of their job is the unmeasured corruption of most of their officials who demand at each checkpoint bribe amounts between 20 and 200 USD. This delays and complicates every movement as they are able to hold you for hours until you do not pay, as for example the DGM of Idiola or Kisangani (airport). It must be said that the only DGM that never asked us for money was in Kenge.
Visit Ruanda
I totally agree that the silence of these soccer clubs stinks, just like the silence of the European Union in the face of the Rwandan-backed M23 invasion of eastern DRC. I guess the most effective revenge available to those in charge of the DGM and some embassies of one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet is to deny visas and harass the few travelers who are interested in the culture and natural scenery that the country has to offer.
I can understand that there is paranoia and that it is not the best time to visit the DRC, but has there ever been a good time to travel in the country: No. I suppose that someone with hidden agendas is not interested in the country.
I suppose someone with hidden agendas would not try to enter through the international airport, with four thousand border posts in the middle of nowhere.
Mi opinion about DRC
Normally I do not usually give my opinion or criticize in public about what I see or what happens to me that is not entirely pleasant in the countries I travel. This is part of the backstage and I share it with the people who travel with me and with my close circle. I only make public travel experiences related to tourism and sometimes mixed with a bit of geopolitics or history. As a guest, I just watch, listen, try to learn and keep my personal opinions private.
I don’t think anyone of us need to go to each other’s homes to lecture on anything. Least of all online. We all have a lot to talk about and solve in our own countries. This time I am making a small exception.
Of course, I have been well and truly screwed, my group has been left stranded and scattered in different places and myself facing cancellations of this and two upcoming trips to the DRC that were practically full. Yes, there are people who are interested in visiting the good things this country has to offer. Anyway, nothing impossible to solve and nothing that I will not overcome.
The important thing is the DRC, a country with countless mineral resources, and also a country where millions of people (practically all of Congo) have a really hard time getting ahead. Yes, here and practically only here, are today all the clichés that people who do not know Africa say about Africa.
In my opinion, they are screwed for many reasons, not only because of the brutal Belgian colonial heritage, the economic interests of external factors or their eastern neighbors, as it is said from many leftist articles (and I am a leftist).
All of the above is true of course, but I think they mainly have it screwed up because of what is going on inside the DRC itself.
The looting, corruption and unregarded barbarism from within and towards themselves is colossal and dramatic to disproportionate levels. Very few think of tomorrow, taken to its worst version.
With this situation, I am not surprised that anyone from outside wants to take advantage of it. As we all know, all fishermen win when the river is troubled. With my emotions more settled, I am publishing this small and humble text, not because now that I have crossed over to the outside I want to “burn all my ships”, no, it is not about that. It is about sharing a vision, my vision, of a foreigner who has traveled for some years traveling for months through a good part of the Congolese map.
Travel to Congo DRC
During these years of travels in the DRC I have had an extreme love vs hate relationship with the country.
How many times have I said “I’m not coming back” and how many times have I come back. How many times have I been told, why the fuck are you offering this country if it only brings you problems?
In the DRC I have had some of my best travel experiences, without a doubt the intensity of travel in this country is chewed up and I am passionate about it. I love adventure and I love to improvise and it is here in this country that I give free rein to my imagination and my impulses. Democratic Congo is powerful and soulful, and yes, it’s addictive. But it is also a country that leads me to frustration and in a way to madness.
I keep great moments with my artist friends in Kinshasa, with the dear grandfathers of the Congolese rumba, with the sapeurs, with the Tata Gonda, with the “crazy” nice people of the black church of Mbandaka. The crazy parties in Kinshasa…
So many good times in Congo.
Ceremonies, festivals, sailing the Congo River, walking in the jungle…so many experiences, so many anecdotes, so many memories. That’s what we travel for, isn’t it? Here in the DRC “clients” have become great friends and some clients have become enemies as well. No middle ground, just like the country.
On the other extreme, in this country I have lived the worst moments and worst experiences of my traveling life, which is extensive I think. Also in some occasions I have felt worry and in some way fear, for me and for those who accompanied me. This country has also made me lose my temper on many occasions.
Extremes, that is the DRC, a country of intense emotions taken to the extreme. Conrad’s texts are still alive in this African heart.
Perhaps that is why the DRC hurts me and it hurts me that I have been thrown out of the country for no reason, although in a way I am happy not to go there again.
At Kumakonda we no longer offer tours in the DR Congo.
Life goes on, right now in the Central African Republic. Good feelings with all that lies ahead. Sorry for all my travelers back home. Resilience, one door closes in the nose and three windows open. We continue.
