May 13, 2005 - 7:46AM

The Age

Vivian Alvarez's last hours in Australia before being deported four years ago were at a Brisbane motel guarded by Immigration officials, a group of Filipino and religious workers says.

She was shaking, complaining she had no money or clothes and that her passport had been taken, the group told ABC TV last night.

Two members of the group spoke to her through the door of the motel room, which was blocked by the officials who ordered them to leave.

The Australian government has refused to say whether Ms Alvarez, a Queensland woman mistakenly deported to the Philippines in 2001, will be offered compensation or an apology for her ordeal.

The 42-year-old was discovered on Wednesday in a Catholic hospice run by nuns in the city of Olongapo, near Manila, after an expatriate Australian priest recognised her on a television report.

Betty Graham-Higgs, a former social worker at Lismore Base Hospital in northern NSW, told ABC TV Ms Alvarez had been brought in to the hospital by a passer-by who found her "lying in a sort of gutter", contradicting reports that Ms Alvarez had been injured in a car accident before her deportation.

"She couldn't walk and she never walked when she was in Lismore Base Hospital," she told ABC TV.

"The only way she could have been injured like that is if she was beaten up." Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has promised Ms Alvarez a house and help if she chose to return home but has refused to say whether the government would offer compensation for the four years she was taken from her family.

Senator Vanstone said no blame could be laid until former federal police chief Mick Palmer completed a closed-door inquiry into immigration bungles.

Ms Alvarez was reunited with her half-sister Cecile Solon yesterday and said she wanted to return to Australia to be with her family and two children, one of whom is in foster care.

Ms Alvarez's brother Henry Solon, who lives in Brisbane, said seeing his sister was his first priority, but did not rule out taking legal action.

"All of us are waiting for an answer, an explanation," he said.

Opposition parties renewed their call for a royal commission into immigration detention while others called for the minister's resignation.

• AAP