Howard apologizes for deportation of Australian woman

Prime Minister John Howard apologized yesterday to a mentally-ill Australian woman who was wrongly deported to the Philippines under the conservative government's strict immigration laws, leaving a nine-year-old son in foster care.

The Philippines-born woman was deported in 2001 after authorities failed to realize she was listed as a missing person.

Officials are currently trying to relocate the woman.

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

Howard the case has been referred to an inquiry investigating another immigration scandal, in which a German-born Australian resident suffering from schizophrenia wrongly spent 10 months in jail and immigration detention.

An with the Philippines consulate, who spoke to the woman before she was deported, said she had said her name was Vivian Alvarez and that she had been married to an Australian man.

The Australian newspaper reported the woman told consulate officials that she had been kept as a sex slave in a Queensland flat and had escaped to New South Wales before being detained by police after being involved in a traffic accident.

"She was suffering from physical injuries and walking with a crutch. Her mind wasn't straight," the official told the newspaper.

"She claimed she was detained in the apartment ... as a white slave, and said there were lots of men coming to her, but she was able to escape.

"I don't know if she was telling the truth. She does not know how she was able to come to Australia."

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie on Friday called for a judicial inquiry into the case.

Beattie the woman had failed to pick her son up from a Brisbane child care facility on Feb. 16, 2001, and the child was subsequently taken into foster care. The state then listed her as a missing person.