Thousands of Somali refugees are still flowing into Kenya despite the formal closure of their shared border

Kenya closed the border to its northern neighbour in January 2007 to block fleeing fighters after Somali and Ethiopian government troops ousted Islamists who had ruled the capital Mogadishu and swathes of southern Somalia for six months. At least a million people have been uprooted by fighting between Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist insurgents since. "The border closure has not achieved what it was intended for. Last month, over 3,500 refugees came through the porous borders," Kenyan Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said. Kajwang was speaking at the remote Dadaab camp in arid north Kenya during a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, on World Refugee Day. The U.N. says 4,000 Somalis a month are crossing the long border, swelling Dadaab's total by 20,000 this year to 200,000.