Learn from the mistakes of others

AN Australian woman with a psychiatric condition spent at least two months locked up in the Baxter immigration detention centre after a mix-up over her identity.

Efforts were being made to reunite her with her family, immigration officials said.

However, the Australian Greens today called for an inquiry into how the woman, identified only as Cornelia, spent at least two months in the Baxter centre in South Australia.

Labor also accused immigration officials and Queensland police of incompetence in their handling of the woman.

It was unclear tonight just how long the woman had been held by authorities.

The Greens said the woman, who moved to Australia from Germany when she was 18 months old, was found by Aboriginal people in North Queensland in late November.

However, Queensland police said she was found at Coen in North Queensland on March 31 last year.

She was handed to immigration officials on April 5, they said.

The Greens said the woman was found in a psychotic state with no identification.

Queensland police, hearing the woman speak some words of German, sought advice from the German consulate but officials were unable to verify her nationality or identity, they said.

Greens senator Kerry Nettle said the police then referred the woman to immigration officials, who had her transferred to Baxter.

"At Baxter she was locked up in the isolation cells without access to medical assessment or treatment while her identity was established," Senator Nettle said.

An appeal was published in German newspapers to identify the woman, but it was unsuccessful.

After Australian refugee advocates spread the word about the situation, Cornelia's family recognised her from media reports.

Senator Nettle said Cornelia's parents had said they reported her missing from a psychiatric facility in Manly in Sydney in September last year.

They were baffled as to why police had not identified her from the missing persons file.

Refugee advocate Pamela Curr said Cornelia had previously escaped from a hospital in Sydney.

"The police didn't bother to check the missing person list, they just handed her to DIMIA (Immigration Department)," Ms Curr said.

"She's not an asylum seeker.

"But she's been there (at Baxter) until today when they found out she had an Australian family."

An immigration department spokesman said Cornelia's identity was confirmed only last night and efforts were underway to reunite her with her family.

"The woman's circumstances were very unusual," the spokesman said.

"We pursued a number of lines of inquiry in Australia and overseas in an effort to identify her.

"All of the information provided by the woman led the department to believe she was an unlawful non-citizen.

"At no time did she state she was a permanent (Australian) resident."

The spokesman said Cornelia had provided conflicting personal details and had no identifying documentation.

He said she had been assessed by a number of health professionals while in detention, including psychiatrists.

Opposition immigration spokesman Laurie Ferguson accused immigration officials and Queensland police of ineptitude.

"We have got a woman on the missing person's list, which you would think would be of some interest to the police," he said.

"Instead, they've handed her to the immigration department because she happens to speak German, it's just ridiculous.

"We have got to put the Queensland police force in equally big neon lights, although the immigration department is also to blame.

"But (the police) came across the woman first and they jumped to the conclusion she was an illegal immigrant, it's keystone cops stuff."

Senator Nettle said the public had a right to know why Cornelia was locked up.

"I will be calling for an inquiry to examine how this staggering case of mismanagement and abuse was allowed to happen," Senator Nettle said.

"How many other seriously mentally ill people are locked up in detention centres?

"How many missing persons have been wrongfully incarcerated by our immigration authorities?"