‘They Had a Compass, It Was 100% Safe’ : German Captain Denies Charges in Tamils Case

A sea captain, accused by West German authorities of smuggling 155 Tamil refugees to Canada, has been located in the Canary Islands and denied any wrongdoing, saying that he gave the castaways “a compass and it was 100% safe.”

In an article, the Toronto Star said Monday that a reporter found Wolfgang Bindel, 45, and his wife on board the freighter Aurigae in port in Las Palmas and reported that Bindel said he plans to return to West Germany in about 10 days.

West German police have accused Bindel of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars to smuggle the Sri Lankan refugees to Canada. They were found adrift in choppy Atlantic waters in two lifeboats and rescued Aug. 12 by Canadian fishermen off Newfoundland, Canada’s easternmost province.

“As a captain and navigator, I can say from my view that they had a compass and it was 100% safe,” Bindel said, according to the Star.

Bindel added that he “did everything to save the lives of the people,” the newspaper said.

Authorities Undecided

In St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it would not immediately seek to have Bindel brought to Canada.

Superintendent Bob Currie, the RCMP commander in Newfoundland, said Canadian authorities have not confirmed that Bindel smuggled the Tamils to Canada. Whether any Canadian laws were broken would depend on where the refugees were cast adrift and under what conditions, he added.

West German authorities have said that Bindel sailed from the West German port of Brake on July 28 on the Aurigae, which flies a Honduran flag but is German-owned.

The castaways initially told Canadian authorities they sailed from India to flee racial tensions in Sri Lanka. They later admitted that they had lied and that they in fact had sailed from West Germany.

The Tamils, an ethnic Hindu minority among the majority Sinhalese Buddhists, say that they originally left their homeland because of persecution, a condition that would allow them refugee status in Canada. The Canadian government has given the Tamils permission to remain for a year while their cases are being studied.