Malaysia will consider taking in a "stateless" three-year-old girl who was born in an Australian immigration detention centre and has spent her entire life behind barbed wire, Home Minister Azmi Khalid said today.

The plight of Naomi Leong, who is reported to be suffering psychological problems and banging her head on the walls after years of imprisonment with her Malaysian mother, received front page coverage in local media today.

Under the headline " Innocence imprisoned ", the Malay Mail reported the girl's mother, Virginia, was arrested when two months pregnant with Naomi while trying to leave Australia on a fake passport.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported she had entered the country on a valid visa but had overstayed. Because Naomi was born in detention she is effectively stateless and Australia will not accept her as a citizen, the paper said.

It added that while Malaysia has made it clear that Virginia can return, her child is not welcome.

The family must decide

But Azmi told AFP that the government would consider allowing the little girl to come to Malaysia if her mother makes an application to bring her home.

Azmi would not commit Kuala Lumpur to accepting Naomi, whose father is a Hong Kong national, saying "we have to study the case."

Under Malaysian law, a child whose father is not Malaysian would not automatically become a Malaysian citizen, he said.

"Under Asian customs, the father is the head of the family. We need to find out what the father wants. The family has to decide," he said.

He urged the girl's mother to submit an application to bring her daughter home, saying: "Of course under the law, the minister has the power to decide."

Pressed on whether he would consider the application favourably, Azmi said: "Make a request."

Three hour freedom

Malaysian and Australian newspapers reported that after psychiatrists advised that Naomi needed to play with children her own age, she was allowed out of the Villawood detention centre in Sydney for three hours on Wednesday to attend a playgroup.

It was the third time in her life that she had been out of the detention camp. On one occasion she accompanied her mother to court and once went on a two-hour trip to a farm.

After her visit to the playgroup, which will now be repeated once a week, Naomi did not want to go back to the camp, her mother said.

"When I met her at the door she was saying 'No home, no home'," the mother was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald .