By Michelle Grattan, David Wroe
May 18, 2005

Philippines authorities tried to get Australia's Immigration Department to delay Vivian Alvarez Solon's deportation and give her "therapeutic counselling" and further treatment for trauma, it was revealed yesterday.

With the deportation imminent, the Philippines embassy in Canberra instructed its consulate on July 16, 2001, to make representations to the Immigration Department for a delay.

The embassy believed this would also allow more time to look for a charitable organisation to shelter Ms Alvarez Solon after she arrived in the Philippines.

"However, the deportation proceeded on 20 July 2001," the embassy said in a statement issued yesterday in response to suggestions the Philippines Government had not done enough to track down Ms Alvarez Solon.

A day before the deportation, the department gave the Philippines consulate a certificate from a doctor stating that Ms Alvarez Solon was fit to travel, and a letter from an Australian social worker "stating that she was able to take care of herself".

"In view of the immigration determination, the medical certification, and on the assumption that she remained a Filipino citizen, the Philippine consulate had no recourse but to issue her a travel document".

Immigration had told the consulate that it had contacted the Australian embassy in Manila to assist in looking for a social welfare group that could take care of Ms Alvarez Solon.

When the Philippine honorary consul-general interviewed Ms Alvarez Solon on July 16, 2001, she provided information about her origins, the date of her marriage to an Australian citizen, and when she arrived in Australia. This information "led the consulate to believe that she could still be a Filipino citizen".

The embassy also defended the Philippines' Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in Manila, which met and initially cared for Ms Alvarez Solon.

The Queensland police contacted the OWWA when looking for Ms Alvarez Solon in 2003. But the police letter did not say they were looking for an Australian citizen deported in July 2001.

The embassy said an official inquiry made to it in Canberra "stating the true status of Ms Alvarez would have produced better and more immediate results".

Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell has attacked Australia's immigration policy, saying the deportation of Ms Alvarez Solon proved the system was too tough. "The flood of illegal immigrants has dried up and I would like to see the situation resolved as justly and speedily and quickly as possible," he said.

The Cornelia Rau immigration controversy reignited yesterday when it emerged immigration officials tried to deport the Australian resident to Germany.

According to documents given to Labor Senator Joe Ludwig, the department asked for travel documents for Ms Rau from the German consulate in May last year. The consulate refused, saying the application was incomplete.

Ms Rau, who suffers schizophrenia, later spent four months in Baxter detention centre.

Her lawyer, Claire O'Connor, said she would be taking civil action to seek compensation for Ms Rau's wrongful detention.

- with AAP