|
Thousands flee south every
year from Somalia and Ethiopia: UN
NAIROBI — At least
17,000 illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa leave their countries
for South Africa annually, most of them transiting through Kenya, a top
UN official said yesterday. Tal Raviv, a regional programme officer at
the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said that
conflict and poverty were forcing Ethiopians and Somalis to undertake
risky trips to better places. “We estimate the number of people,
specifically Somalis and Ethiopians, going from south central Somalia
and southern Ethiopia towards South Africa is between 17,000 and 20,000
men every year,” Raviv said.
Violence in Somalia has killed some 21,000 civilians since the start of
2007 and uprooted a further 1.5 million people. Southern Ethiopia is
also mired in a long-running insurgency against the Ethiopian
government, for more autonomy for the underdeveloped ethnic Somali
Ogaden region. “The journey is made possible because of limited border
controls all the way to South Africa, but also the fact that you can
easily get false documents and pay bribes to move from one place to
another,” she said.
IOM’s 2009 report estimates that sneaking Ethiopians and Somalis into
South Africa was a $40 million business. Police in Kenya’s north eastern
region said they have stepped up measures to curb human smuggling. “We
have also sacked some of the corrupt officials who have been taking
money from illegal migrants,” said James Ole Seriani, north eastern
province commissioner, in a telephone interview from the eastern town of
Garissa. Kenya officially closed its 680 km border with Somalia in 2007
fearing the threat from heavily armed militias. |
