Women and children perched on top of the piles. On the dock, more people were arriving all the time, squeezed into battered taxis or trucks hired by the Sierra Leone embassy. Uncertain future' The Mahera has been shuttling backwards and forwards to Freetown since the crisis started, loading about 1,000 people a time, plus children, plus baggage. The furniture belonged to Sierra Leonians living in the capital, but many people on the boat had travelled down from refugee camps in the far east of the country and had been two days or more on the road. On some parts of the journey there are checkpoints every two kilometres with soldiers or armed local youths checking papers and baggage and asking for money.
Some men report being stripped naked to check for tattoos.
The vigilantes apparently believe that there are marks which identify a rebel. The passengers who had come from the east face an uncertain future, even when they reach Sierra Leone. Their home areas in the north are occupied by RUF rebels, so when they arrive in Freetown they will be stuck, dependant on the charity of friends and relatives or in displaced people's camps. These are already very crowded and the number who have returned so far is tiny compared with those still wanting to go.