The Edmund Rice Centre today made clear its grave concern at the Australian Government's announcement of suspensions in processing of some asylum seeker claims - three months for Sri Lankan claimants and six months for Afghani claimants.

Edmund Rice Centre director, Phil Glendenning, today issued an urgent appeal from Copenhagen calling Australians to make known to the Government the need for urgent and drastic action on climate change.

“We can't let ourselves fall in the trap of self-interested and cynical hard-heartedness,” he said. “If we do so as a nation, then it is our own humanity that is demeaned by our failure to respond to the humanity of our vulnerable neighbours.”

Representatives from the Pacific Island communities most threatened by rising sea levels, will travel to the Copenhagen UN summit this week, together with Australian human rights advocates, to ensure that the human face of climate change is not forgotten.

The Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) today called for a definitive end to the sort of debate that treats asylum seekers as political footballs - wilfully tossed around with the sole aim of gaining a team advantage in the game of politics.

The emerging practice of the Australian Government in seeking close cooperation with Indonesia and other neighbouring states to deal with asylum seekers must focus primarily on the protection of those who are in fact fleeing for their lives.