Deported Australian woman found alive in Philippines

CANBERRA - Australian woman Vivian Alvarez, deported to the Philippines four years ago in an Immigration Department bungle, has been found living in a northern Filipino convent hospice.

The government has been embarrassed by the 2001 deportation of the Queensland woman -- known also by the names Vivian Solon, Vivian Young and Vivian Wilson -- who had two children in Australia and had lived in the country for up to 18 years.

Philippines-based Australian priest Father Mike Duffin last week discovered the woman who had been cared for in the convent for the past four years was Ms Alvarez after he saw a report on the ABC's satellite television.

Fr Duffin is the chaplain of a shelter run by nuns from the Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity which has cared for Ms Alvarez since her deportation.

He told the ABC's Lateline program that Ms Alvarez had been stuck in a hospice for the dying for the past four years after being placed there by Australian officials.

She was quite weak and used a walking stick. But he rejected suggestions that Ms Alvarez had a mental illness, which could have contributed to her mistaken deportation.

"She's a very quiet woman, very soft spoken, and I think very, very safe," Fr Duffin said.

The priest said he was stunned by claims that the Australian government had no idea until now where Ms Alvarez was.

"I find that very hard to believe when they (are the) ones who told her before she left Australia that she was coming to Mother Teresa's," Fr Duffin said.

"I find it very hard (to believe) that the government don't know where they left her. Do they have no records or do people forget things as soon as they do them."

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone tonight said consular officials were on their way to the convent to offer all appropriate assistance to Ms Alvarez, who will be offered help to return to Australia if she wants.

Senator Vanstone said consular officials in Manila had spoken to Fr Duffin.

"Without rushing to judgment, I am more than cautiously optimistic that Ms Alvarez has been found safe," she said.

Ms Alvarez's sister, Cecile Solon, told Lateline she was relieved to hear that her sibling had been found alive but remained baffled about how she had been deported in the first place.

"There are questions to be answered," she said.

"At this moment a public inquiry or investigation is welcome.

"There may be more Vivians to come if this kind of system is not corrected."

Ms Solon said she was furious about what had happened to her sister.

"I just feel that there was no compassion in (the) handling (of) her," she said.

"I feel there was some kind of racial discrimination.

"Vivian's being found does not excuse or exonerate anybody from what has happened."

Ms Solon is due to visit her sister tomorrow and is concerned about the state of her health.

"I do not know if she will see us, it depends on what state of mind she is in," she said.

It has emerged that Ms Alvarez was deported four years ago just days after being involved in a car accident.

"They didn't believe she was an Australian citizen and she was so bashed up and a bit sick and when they said 'We'll give you someone to look after you' she thought they were helping her," Fr Duffin said.

"I think at the time she was pretty well battered, she still complains of headaches."

He said he was not convinced Ms Alvarez would want to return to Australia, the Associated Press (AP) reported today from Manila.

He said she was "in sort of disbelief" when told that Australian Prime Minister John Howard was prepared to apologise for her wrongful deportation.

"I explained everything to her," AP quoted the priest as saying.

"She said, 'How will I come back to Australia?' But I said, there's been a big injustice done you, and the first thing she said, 'Would they put me in jail?' I said, you haven't committed injustice, the other people have. She said, 'Well, I'm well off here. People are looking after me here'."

Her family is convinced she would not have been dealt with so harshly by immigration officials if she were a white Australian and not of Filipino appearance.

Earlier today, Labor and the minor parties joined in the Senate to censure Senator Vanstone over the detention bungles by her department.

The government has rejected calls for a royal commission despite the Alvarez revelations which follow the case of mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau.

Ms Rau was held in detention for 10 months including an extended period at the Baxter detention centre in South Australia.

An inquiry by former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Palmer into Ms Rau's wrongful detention has been widened to examine other errors by the department, including the Alvarez case.

Senator Vanstone admitted earlier this week that the department may have been aware of the mistake involving Ms Alvarez for up to two years.

Because of the differing surnames, it was not until an immigration official saw a missing person message two years ago that the alarm was raised, News Limited papers said today.

The official saw the name Vivian Alvarez Solon flash on after the screening of an episode of the US television show, Without a Trace, on the Nine Network.

- AAP