Lloyd Jones, Port Moresby – A Papuan woman who says she fled to PNG after Indonesian intelligence officers forced her to plead for her daughter's return from asylum in Australia should be granted a protection visa by Canberra, Papuan independence activists say.

Australian Nick Chesterfield of the pro-independence West Papua National Authority said today Canberra should grant her a protection visa immediately and resettle her in Australia.

"We would like the Australian government to do the right thing and let her be with her family, she needs protection immediately," he said.

Asked what the government was doing about the woman's case, Prime Minister John Howard told reporters in Sydney that "it's important that we allow the normal processes to operate and it's not for us to do (anything) other than follow Australian law" as had been done with other Papua asylum seekers.

Siti Wainggai said she was summonsed to the city of Jayapura in the Indonesian province of Papua where intelligence officers forced her to sign a prepared statement demanding the return of her daughter, ABC TV reported. Her young daughter Anike and the child's father, Herman Wainggai, were among a boatload of 43 Papuans who arrived at Cape York in January from Papua seeking refugee status.

Canberra's granting of protection visas to 42 of the asylum seekers angered Jakarta which withdrew its ambassador from Australia in March.

Siti Wainggai, who is separated from her husband, appeared on Indonesian television stating her daughter was taken to Australia against her will and that she should be returned to Papua.

But she has now told ABC TV she was forced to sign a prepared statement demanding her daughter's return and to make her statement public. "They said if I refuse then certainly I will be killed," she said.

Wainggai later fled by boat to PNG where she is in hiding and fearful of retribution by Indonesian authorities. "I'm being followed by certain people who have been paid to carry out the plan to kill me," she said.

Wainggai said she was happy her daughter and husband were in Australia and hoped to join them there. A Melbourne refugee lawyer is currently advocating on Wainggai's part to have her granted protection in Australia.