Netherlands ? An 8-year-old boy and his Chinese illegal immigrant mother, whose imprisonment sparked calls for a review of tough immigration policies, have been released, their attorney said Saturday.

Hui Chen was freed along with his mother, Xiu Chen, after she revealed new information to immigration authorities that could affect their decision to deport her, said their attorney, Michel Collet.

They had been imprisoned since last month.

The mother claims to have been shipped here in 1998 by people traffickers when she was 16 and already pregnant with Hui.

Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk had argued that because Hui’s mother refused to be separated from her stateless son, they had to be locked in the same cell until they could be sent to China.