Starting activities for refugee legal support in Kinshasa DRCongo

Legal support to refugees and asylum seekers in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Refugees at our offices writing down their testimonies in order to help them formulate an appeal

On Tuesday August 4^th, 2026 we launched officially our activities focusing on legal aid to refugees and asylum seekers in Kinshasa the Democratic Republic of Congo. We received 8 cases of asylum seekers who want us to help them to make appeals against the decision to deny them refugee status, one Court Case where a refugee was wrongly accused and one case which needs arbitration.

On top of that we received a delegation of Refugees from Angola who are complaining that in 2013 a refugee status secession clause was imposed on them but many did not get the promised solutions, they are in three categories: The first category are those who accepted to be repatriated back to Angola but some were taken others were left here in DRC without a document, the second category is for those who accepted to be granted Angola Identity Cards and other documents in order to stay here in DRC, some were given while others were not given and those who missed are staying here without document, then the last are those who refused to go and they were promised a durable solution of resettlement but they are still here and nothing was done for them.

We also received two cases of refugees who have stayed in DRC more than 10 years waiting for the refugee status, and two cases of South Sudanese refugees who want to be reunified with their mother who is also a refugee here in Kinshasa but they have failed.   

Engaging the refugee regime in Kinshasa

Some among them have been waiting for a refugee status for more than 20 years now, just imagine that

As usual our communication with actors within UNHCR and CNR was not kind as they think we are posing a competition, they blamed refugees for coming to us, indicated that they a system in place which refugees can use, but indicated that some refugees and asylum seekers are not easy to trace anymore.

We object all these fake excuses as refugees produced to us all the various letters they have been told to write but in vain. We are planning for a meeting in order to exchange with the refugee regime and advocate for better management of refugee cases.