Howard defends Australian immigration errors

The immigration bungles admitted to by the Australian Government only amount to a tiny percentage of cases, says Prime Minister John Howard.

He said the 201 cases of possible wrongful immigration detention accounted for only 0.2 per cent of all suspected illegal migrants recently detained in Australia.

More than 88,000 suspected illegal immigrants had been caught between July 2000 and April 2005, and only 201 cases had been referred to former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Palmer to examine.

Palmer is heading a closed-door inquiry into immigration bungles, including the wrongful detention of Australian woman Cornelia Rau and wrongful deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez.