A three-year-old girl held inside an Australian immigration centre since she was born enjoyed her first day of freedom today, as criticism of the conservative government's detention policies continued to mount.

The child's mother, a Malaysian who was two months pregnant when she was detained in 2001 for allegedly trying to travel on a false passport and overstaying her visa, said she was elated that she and her daughter had been given bridging visas which allow them to live in the community.

Virginia Leong said she intended to remain in Australia and was desperate to see her seven-year-old son from an earlier relationship.

"I'm so desperate, so desperate. Almost four-and-a-half years I didn't see him now," she told ABC radio.

"I don't know how he looks like. I don't know how tall he is. I don't know absolutely nothing."

Her daughter Naomi was born on May 5, 2002 at the Villawood detention centre in western Sydney.

The child was released for the first time for three hours last week to play with other children after she began banging her head against a wall and was said to be often listless, mute and unresponsive.

The case has been widely reported in Malaysia, which has often been critical of Australia's policy of unlimited and mandatory detention for illegal immigrants, including children.

Renewed criticism

The government has recently softened this stance to allow those whose applications to remain in Australia have failed but who cannot be returned to their country of origin to stay.

But several high-profile cases of immigration bungles have brought renewed criticism on the policies of Prime Minister John Howard's government.

On Monday Cornelia Rau, a German-born permanent resident of Australia, held a press conference to condemn her wrongful detention for 10 months by immigration authorities who claimed she was an illegal resident.

The government acknowledged earlier this month that it had mistakenly deported a naturalised citizen back to her native Philippines.

The opposition Labor Party yesterday repeated its call for an open inquiry into the immigration detention policy, saying that a closed inquiry into the Rau case headed by former police commissioner Mick Palmer did not have enough power to investigate fully.

"The disturbing catalogue of wrongful detentions and deportations demands, at the least, an independent review of all long-term detainees," Labor immigration spokesman Laurie Ferguson said.

"Public confidence will not be boosted by the secretive Palmer inquiry, lacking as it does, powers for self-incrimination, forced attendance and protection from defamation actions."