France protests over Villawood detention bungleBy ABC...

France protests over Villawood detention bungle
By ABC Investigative Unit reporter Andrew Fowler

The French embassy has lodged a formal complaint with the Immigration Department after it failed to tell them a French tourist had been locked up at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney.

When Immigration officials suspected Mahamadou Sacko's passport was fake, they took him to Villawood but did not call the French embassy to verify his identity.

The latest detention centre mistake comes as Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday that he will consider apologising to a mentally ill Sydney woman, Cornelia Rau, who was held in detention for 10 months as a suspected illegal immigrant, once he receives a report into her case.

It took Mr Sacko two days to get in touch with the French embassy and he remained locked up in Villawood for four days.

"They're asking me if I want they call French embassy, I say 'ok, yes' [but] they didn't do," Mr Sacko told the ABC's Investigative Unit.

"Why not? They say is not their job for do that, if I want I must do by myself."

Mr Sacko sued the Immigration Department after his release from the detention centre and was paid $25,000 in compensation.

French embassy official Oliver Bove says it was the Australian Government's responsibility to contact the embassy.

"You see the international law, we must be notified when a French citizen is detained, whatever he has done or not done, and the Howard Government did not notify us," he said.