Harbor Swimmers

With four-fifths of the country unemployed, Liberians are forced to devise creative ways of staying alive, giving rise to some interesting careers. One of these is harbor swimming. Although night swimmers aren’t unique to Liberia – we encountered many of them in Ghana as well – they are more prolific and easier to spot here.

Harbor swimmers, as the name suggests, swim in harbors. They scout out the docks during the day to see if there’s anything worth stealing, then swim back at night, climb up and take whatever they can float with. With cargo ships going in and out and goods being constantly loaded and unloaded, there’s quite a bit worth stealing, though the most common item to see bobbing along is rice bags.

Mercy Ships has been here twice before, and experience has made the ship’s security particularly vigilant. There is a night swimmer watch that volunteers sign up for in two-hour shifts; seven swimmers were arrested just last night (that’s a record for this outreach), and a few days ago the security officers, along with the U.N. soldiers that guard the dock, spent an hour and a half trying to catch a swimmer in broad daylight who was trying to escape onto one of the defunct barges that litter the harbor. They finally got him by bringing in another Liberian to swim after him.

During the last outreach, one swimmer who had already been arrested twice was seen walking around on the docks during the day. One of the security guards recognized him and asked him what he was doing here. His response: “Deciding what to take tonight.”

Ha.