NAIROBI — At least 17 000 illegal migrants from the Horn of Africa leave for South Africa annually, most of them transiting through Kenya, a top UN official said yesterday.

Tal Raviv, a regional programme officer with the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), told Reuters that between 17 000 and 20 000 men go from south central Somalia and southern Ethiopia towards South Africa every year.

“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 SA is a $40 million business.