WHO Chief Urges Compassion for Migrants Following Bishop Schneider’s ‘Islamisation’ Remarks

Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has criticised comments by Catholic Bishop Athanasius Schneider describing mass migration into Europe as an attempt to Islamise the continent, urging people to view migrants with compassion rather than suspicion.

Tedros made the remarks in a post on his X handle while responding to a video of Schneider, the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, in which the cleric described migrants entering Europe as “invaders” and alleged that the movement was part of a deliberate effort to undermine the continent’s Christian identity.

Reacting to the comments, the WHO chief said he was deeply troubled by such characterisation, warning against language that dehumanises vulnerable people.

“I read these words with a heavy heart. When we call human beings ‘invaders,’ we strip them of their faces, their names, their stories, and history teaches us where that road leads.”

READ ALSO: WHO Reports Over 1,000 Ebola Cases in DRC as Death Toll Hits 254

Tedros argued that many of those arriving in Europe are escaping conflict, poverty and humanitarian crises rather than participating in any coordinated campaign.

“The people arriving on Europe’s shores are not an army. They are families fleeing war, hunger, and despair. Among them are Christians and Muslims alike, mothers carrying children, young people who buried their dreams to survive. To reduce them to a plot against a continent is to deny both the evidence and their humanity.”

He also rejected the suggestion that migration poses an inherent threat to Europe’s Christian heritage, saying the continent’s values should be reflected in how it treats vulnerable people.

“Europe’s Christian heritage is not defended by fear. It is defended by living it. ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ is not a political slogan; it is the Gospel itself. A faith confident in its own truth does not tremble before the stranger at the door; it opens it.”

While acknowledging that migration presents genuine policy challenges, Tedros maintained that governments should distinguish between border management and hostility towards migrants.

“None of this means borders don’t matter or that communities’ concerns should be dismissed. Migration must be managed with order, fairness, and honesty about its pressures. But there is a difference between managing migration and demonising migrants. The first is policy; the second is a wound to our shared humanity.”

He concluded by calling for empathy in public discourse on migration.

“I will keep saying it: compassion is not weakness, and fear is not faith. May we choose to see people, not plots.”

Schneider had earlier claimed that mass migration into Europe amounted to “an invasion” designed to Islamise the continent and alleged that it formed part of a broader political agenda to weaken Europe’s Christian and cultural identity.