The high sea drifters

For the last six months "Frank George" has been watching and waiting a few hundred metres from the Cape Town harbour for an opportunity to continue the next leg of a journey that has brought him from Tanzania to Durban, and now the Mother City.

George, 22, came to Cape Town as a stowaway in August last year aboard one of the hundreds of ships that drop anchor in the harbour every month.

"I'm waiting for another ship to try my luck, to go to Europe," said George.

He said he left his home in Mombasa, Kenya, hoping for a better life, "a house for myself, and a nice car to drive".

But now he spends most of his days with several other hopeful stowaways underneath a bridge leading into Cape Town's city centre, waiting to get onto another ship.

George said he finished school four years ago but could not find employment. This was the push that propelled him to sneak onto a ship.

Somalian refugee Navos Victor, 27, said he lived most of his life in Mombasa and had lost contact with his family. He said most of his close relatives died in his country's civil war.

"I stowed away on a ship, thinking it was going to Europe or America," said Victor.

In Cape Town he earns money working as an assistant to stall owners on Greenmarket Square.

"I've been to Home Affairs to seek asylum, but there are too many people there. Indians, Pakistanis and even Chinese seek asylum when there's no war going on in their country," he said.

Cape Town's mayoral committee member for safety, JP Smith, seems to take a relaxed attitude to the stowaways and their presence in the city.

"Stowaways are on their way out of the city. They are not here to settle," said Smith.

He said stowaways required proximity to the harbour, and that's why many had set up an informal transit camp in the Culembourg area.

"We can't take legal action against them," said Smith.

A member of the city's displaced peoples unit, which falls under the Metro police, said they had no issues with the stowaways.

"We're just here to make sure they do not set up permanent structures, and are not involved in crime," said the official.

Cape Town port spokesman Coen Birckenstock said security measures ensured breaches were kept to a minimum.

National police spokesman Solomon Makgale said security at ports of entry was the responsibility of the Department of Home Affairs.

Robert Byrne, who runs a security company contracted to ensure stowaways did not board vessels, said the number of stowaways caught differed from year to year and was influenced by conflicts on the African continent.

"The majority who try to board ships are Tanzanians. The xenophobic attacks in 2008 also caused a lot of people to attempt to stow away," said Byrne.