An Australian woman wrongly deported four years ago is still missing. (ABC)
Prime Minister John Howard has offered a qualified apology to a woman who was wrongly deported by Australian immigration officials.
Mr Howard says the case has been referred to the inquiry investigating the mistaken detention of Cornelia Rau.
"I am very sorry if anything unfair has happened in relation to that and on the face of it that does appear to be the case," Mr Howard told Southern Cross Radio.
Labor's Laurie Ferguson is not satisfied.
"Apology is very interesting. I think it's an admission of a major failure here," he said, adding that a full judicial inquiry is needed.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has also called on the Federal Government to hold a judicial inquiry.
Mr Beattie has revealed the Filipino woman, who was living at Caboolture, has a nine-year-old son still in foster care.
He says the Government needs to reconsider its inquiry.
"This is an area which, in my view, has demonstrated a clear need for an open public inquiry and I think they should reconsider that," he said.
Mental illness
The Filipino woman came to Australia after marrying an Australian citizen in the Philippines.
New South Wales police came across her after a car accident near Lismore.
The woman spoke little English and was sent to the Philippines consulate in Brisbane.
She told them her name was Vivian Alvarez and she had been kept as a sex slave in an inner city apartment.
She said she had family in neither Australia nor the Philippines.
The woman was listed as a missing person in Queensland under the name Vivian Wilson, something immigration officials only discovered in 2003.
Immigration authorities deported her in mid-2001.
It is understood the woman was suffering from a serious mental disorder, and her marriage had broken down.
No one knows her current whereabouts.
Filipino community
The case has shocked the Filipino community.
Melba Marginson, from the Centre for Filipino Concerns, says she has contacted organisations in the Philippines to try to locate the woman.
"It is the Australian family on the husband's side that's looking for the woman," she said.
"This must have been triggered by the Cornelia Rau case.
"It's very concerning and disturbing for us because if this was four years ago... it may be quite difficult tracking down what happened to the woman."
She added: "We are very concerned because this is another travesty of justice... we are so worried that the system isn't really treating its own citizens fairly."
Ms Marginson says media networks in the Philippines have been alerted to the case, but need more details in order to help find her.
The Federal Government is refusing to release any information about the woman, saying it is simply complying with the request of her family in Australia.
*  Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs




Australian Prime Minister John Howard has made a qualified apology to an Australian citizen who was deported to the Philippines in 2001. The woman, who was born in the Philippines, is yet to be located. 

"I am very sorry if anything unfair has happened in relation to that and on the face of it that does appear to be the case," Mr Howard said.

The woman had come into contact with New South Wales police after a car accident. Speaking but little English, she was then sent to the Philippines consulate in Brisbane, Queensland. She was then deported by immigration officials, in 2001. In 2003 they became aware that she was listed in Queensland as a missing person. 

A marriage to an Australian man had broken down, and the lady was believed to be suffering from a mental illness.  According to the National Survey of Mental Health and Well Being (1997), one in five Australian adults meet at least one criteria for mental disorder.

Parallels have been drawn between this incident and the case of Cornelia Rau, an Australian citizen who spent 10 months in immigration detention, including 3 months in solitary confinement at Baxter Detention Centre, before her identity was revealed.

The Department of Immigration Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA), responsible for both cases, has left unanswered a question raised in Parliament in February, concerning the number who had been wrongfully detained within its system of mandatory detention. The answer was due on April 8, according to Greens Senator Kerry Nettle.

DIMIA indicated in February last year, that over the previous year (2003—2004), 33 people who were lawfully in Australia, had been detained and then released.