Pope Leo has previously criticised US President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies, calling for better treatment of refugees.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 23 Apr 2026<\/span>23 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pope Leo has criticised the world\u2019s treatment of migrants and refugees, claiming that they are often viewed as \u201cworse than house pets or animals\u201d.<\/p>\n Leo, who has previously attacked United States President Donald Trump\u2019s hardline immigration policies, called for better treatment of migrants as he flew back to Rome on Thursday following a four-nation Africa tour.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThey are human beings, and we have to treat human beings in a humanitarian way and not treat them worse \u2026 than house pets or animals,\u201d the pope said in a press conference.<\/p>\n Leo, who is the first head of the Roman Catholic Church from the US, did not reference any specific country when calling out the ill-treatment of immigrants.<\/p>\n The pope has previously questioned whether the Trump administration\u2019s hardline policies are in line with the Catholic Church\u2019s strict pro-life teachings, in remarks that drew sharp criticism from conservative US Catholics.<\/p>\n Speaking on Thursday, Leo said that countries have a right to control their borders, but urged richer nations to help develop the countries that migrants are leaving, so they do not feel the need to leave.<\/p>\n What are richer countries doing to change the situation for poorer countries?\u201d he asked. \u201cAnd why can\u2019t we seek \u2026 to change the situations in [those] countries?\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Leo also condemned the killing of protesters in Iran earlier this year, after President Trump attacked the Catholic leader for not speaking out on the subject whilst criticising the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n \u201cI condemn all actions that are unjust. I condemn the taking of people\u2019s lives,\u201d the pope said in response to a question in a press conference about reports that Iran killed thousands of anti-government protesters in January.<\/p>\n Leo was attacked by Trump on social media as \u201cterrible\u201d on April 12, after the pope emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war.<\/p>\n In a post two days later, Trump asked \u201cwill someone please tell\u00a0Pope\u00a0Leo\u201d about the deaths of Iranian protesters.<\/p>\n Speaking ahead of his tour of Africa, Leo said that he did not wish to \u201cdebate\u201d Trump and that he did not fear the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cI will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote \u2060peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states \u2060to look for just \u2060solutions to problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Leo returns to Rome after wrapping up his Africa trip in Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n The pope defended his decision to visit countries known for having authoritarian leaders, with both Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon governed by long-term leaders.<\/p>\n He said the Vatican maintains diplomatic relationships with the governments in those countries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t always make great proclamations \u2026 but there\u2019s an awful lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to promote justice,\u201d said the\u00a0pope.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pope Leo has previously criticised US President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies, calling for better treatment of refugees. Published On 23 Apr 202623 Apr 2026 Pope Leo has criticised the world\u2019s treatment of migrants and refugees, claiming that they are often viewed as \u201cworse than house pets or animals\u201d. Leo, who has previously attacked United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Headshot-1-1706763439.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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Critic of the Iran war<\/h2>\n
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