As in 2021, Congolese students enrolled in schools abroad were unable to return to school, having failed to obtain their passports in time.
Every September, it's the same tune. Already last year, the situation of passport applicants in the Republic of Congo, and in particular students enrolled in universities and schools abroad, were unable to obtain the famous sesame. The fault, according to the authorities, to a shortage of boxes, essential for the establishment of documents. To the great despair of the students who had, for some of them, already missed their start of the school year.
This year, the phenomenon is repeated. According RFI, indeed, several dozen Congolese students could once again miss the start of the academic year, this Thursday, September 1st. However, all the steps were taken on the side of the young Congolese, who obtained their pre-registration and, for most of them, paid for this return.
The obstacle course
But once again, the Congolese immigration services are unable to issue passports to these future students from abroad. The fault, once is not custom, with the shortage of boxes. The students have therefore been camping for several days in front of the administration, place de la Préfecture in Brazzaville. Pan-African radio ensures that last Tuesday, these students were violently dispersed by the police.
But it must be said that on the eve of September 1, the stress began to mount for these students, certain that, without the famous passport, they could no longer join their respective schools. Because, according to them, public schools do not allow exemptions and have only given Congolese students one to two weeks to present themselves.
Problem: without a passport, it is impossible to make an appointment in foreign chancelleries to obtain a visa.
An outstanding debt to the service provider?
What is this recurring problem of cardboard shortage due to? Immigration services depend on a service provider and often have to deal with stock shortages. Last year, Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso announced delays in "the massive production of passports".
But according to the supplier, the issue is not the disruption of supply but the absence of payment from the Congolese authorities. At the start of the 2021 school year, the German supplier of passport boxes estimated the slate owed by the government at 10 billion CFA francs. The latter then announced that he had already advanced the sum of 2 billion francs. The German provider had "deplored the behavior of the Congolese authorities who prove by this big lie their lack of seriousness".
In the absence of an efficient national printing press, the Congo is always obliged to call on a foreign company to supply itself with passport boxes.