Schizophrenia

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b and was locked up in Sydney's Villawood detention centre three times between 1999 and 2003 — at one stage he was held for eight months.

"We will handle any claims for compensation, short-term assistance in the most expeditious and fair and reasonable way," Senator Vanstone said.

Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke called for then immigration minister Philip Ruddock to accept responsibility and resign.

In a case which has echoes of the treatment of Cornelia Rau, the Ombudsman, Professor John McMillan, said in his report he found a series of mistakes or omissions prolonged efforts to identify Mr T, including mistranslations of his name by interpreters.

He found that Mr T's fingerprints had been on a police database since he was arrested for stealing in 1985, but immigration officers had failed to check that source.

"It is alarming.

The fact that readily available identification means like that weren't used for months and months is disturbing," Professor McMillan said.

"I think it shows that in the management of the administrative detention environment people weren't adequately focused on what it meant to be holding someone in detention." His criticisms were echoed by the federal president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, Tuen Manh Nguyen.

"This is a very sad case and once again it highlights the shortcomings of the Immigration Department, Dr Nguyen said.

"They should do better than this.

"It is surprising that he was detained three times over four...

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b.

In 1989 he was granted Australian citizenship.

He was detained by Immigration as a suspected illegal alien on three occasions - for five days in March 1999, for 242 days between January and September 2003 and for a further six days in October 2003.

Each detention was precipitated by NSW police apprehending the homeless, disoriented Mr T.

Identification was impeded by Mr T's confusion, varied explanations, language difficulties and wrong names.

On one occasion, Mr T asked for a Mandarin interpreter, who could not understand his dialect, and then asked for a Vietnamese interpreter before denying knowledge of the language and refusing to talk.

In January 2003, a Cantonese-speaking officer incorrectly translated the Chinese characters Mr T gave as his name and for the next eight months the Immigration Department used this as his name.

On top of this, Mr T told Officer E he was an Australian citizen, but nothing followed.

Officer E told Professor McMillan his job was to ask questions and fill in forms, not follow up on answers.

Inside Villawood, another detainee identified Mr T as someone he had met six years before but there is no record of the Immigration Department "taking any action to further inquire".

In April 2003, Officer G wrote that Mr T could be an Australian "for all we know" and suggested checks with mental hospitals.

Again, no action, Professor McMillan said.

And how was this all resolved?

An immigration officer had an ethnic Chinese colleague from Vie...

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, an illness diagnosed in a Malaysian refugee camp before he arrived in Australia 22 years ago.

He was granted Australian citizenship in 1989.

His case was described by the Ombudsman, John McMillan, as the worst of 221 sent to him last year by the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone.

It comes on top of wrongful detention scandals involving other bona fide and mentally ill Australian residents - Cornelia Rau, who was incarcerated for 12 months, and Vivian Alvarez Solon, who was deported to her native Philippines.

In his findings yesterday, Professor McMillan said the system failed Mr T because Immigration had been too ready to assume illegality and too unwilling to make the necessary identity checks.

He portrayed a department - two years ago, at least - that was authoritarian, unco-ordinated and undertrained.

"Mr T's case provides clear evidence of an urgent need for the department to address detainee mental health issues," Professor McMillan said.

He acknowledged changes implemented since the upheaval precipitated by the Rau and Solon disasters.

Professor McMillan said the Government must right some wrong by compensating Mr T.

Senator Vanstone, whose written apology was delivered to Mr T on Wednesday night, said yesterday the manner of his compensation mattered less than the Government's commitment to "handle this matter in the most expeditious and fair and reasonable fashion".

"Where we get it wrong, we should answer for that.

And the Ombudsman is a credible p...