Australia to release immigration report

CANBERRA - The government has come under attack for its attitude to its immigration blunders as it prepares for the release of a scathing report into the detention mistakes.

The government is expected to release today or tomorrow a report by former federal police chief Mick Palmer into embarrassing immigration failings.

The blunders include the wrongful detention of mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau and Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez's wrongful deportation to the Philippines.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who was immigration minister at the time of the Alvarez deportation, has defended aspects of the immigration department's handling of the two cases.

Mr Ruddock said that while their wrongful detention and Ms Alvarez's subsequent deportation were not justified, both women had failed to provide authorities with their true identities.

If Ms Rau and Ms Alvarez had co-operated with authorities and revealed their identities it would have been much easier to avoid treating them as illegal immigrants, he said.

But Ms Alvarez's lawyer, George Newhouse, blasted Mr Ruddock for his approach.

"(What Mr Ruddock is saying) is offensive and it's false," he said.

"He should get his facts straight before he makes pronouncements on this issue.

"I think he's playing with fire if he's taking this approach, which is to blame the victim."

Mr Newhouse said Ms Alvarez had tried to tell authorities who she was but they had failed to listen.

- AAP