Pope Francis said Wednesday those who knowingly and intentionally “repel” migrants are committing a grave sin.

Breaking from the current theme of his general audiences Aug. 28, the Pope spoke at length about the poor conditions of migrants who attempt to cross a sea or desert to reach safety but who sometimes lose their lives in the process.

“The tragedy is that many, the majority of these deaths, could have been prevented,” Francis underlined in his speech to thousands in St. Peter’s Square.

“It must be said clearly: There are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants,” he said. “And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin.”

Departing from his prepared remarks, the pontiff recalled seeing the heartbreaking viral photo of the wife and child of Pato Crepin, who died in the desert in the summer of 2023 while trying to cross the border into Tunisia on their way to Europe.

Last year, Tunisian authorities were clamping down on irregular immigration by taking people who entered the country to remote areas on the borders with Libya and Algeria.

The country’s leader also signed an agreement with the European Union to receive 1 billion euros (about $1.1 billion) in order to stem the area’s highly profitable business of smuggling people from Tunisia into Europea via the Mediterranean Sea.

“We all remember the photo of the wife and daughter of Pato, dead from hunger, thirst, in the desert,” Pope Francis said. “In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women, and children that no one must see. They hide them. Only God sees them and hears their cry. This is a cruelty of our civilization.”

The Missing Migrants Project, run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), records that since 2014, an estimated 47,000 people have either died or gone missing while attempting to migrate in Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean areas. 

Most deaths were caused by drowning, usually while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in unsafe and overcrowded boating vessels.

In his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis also waded into political arguments about immigration and borders.

“We can all agree on one thing: Migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said. “But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarization of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result.”

The solution, according to the Pope, is to extend safe and legal access routes for migrants so that those who are fleeing war, violence, persecution, and natural disasters can find refuge.

Migrants will stop risking their lives to cross the sea or deserts, he continued, if we promote “a global governance of migration based on justice, fraternity, and solidarity.”

In numerous past statements on refugees and migrants, Pope Francis has asked countries to be as welcoming to immigrants as they are able while also acknowledging their right to control their borders and to determine how many migrants and refugees they can safely integrate into their societies.

Paragraph 2241 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church also affirms that “the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”

“Political authorities,” the catechism continues, “for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption.”

In his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis recalled a lesson from the Book of Exodus: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him.”

“The orphan, the widow, and the stranger are the quintessential poor whom God always defends and asks to be defended,” he emphasized. 

“There is a Psalm which says to the Lord: ‘Thy way was through the sea / Thy path through the great waters’ (Ps 77:19). And another says that he ‘led his people through the wilderness / for his steadfast love endures forever’ (Ps 136:16),” the Pope quoted.

“These holy words tell us that, to accompany the people on their journey to freedom, God himself crosses the sea and the desert,” Pope Francis said. “[God] does not remain at a distance, no; he shares in the migrants’ tragedy, God is there with them, with the migrants, he suffers with them, with the migrants, he weeps and hopes with them, with the migrants.”

The pontiff said that while most of us are unable to be on the front lines with the courageous people who, acting as good Samaritans, “do their utmost to rescue and save injured and abandoned migrants on the routes of desperate hope,” there are still ways to help — “first and foremost, prayer.”

“And I ask you: Do you pray for migrants, for those who come to our lands to save their lives?” he said. 

He also urged cooperation to combat human trafficking and the criminal traffickers who “mercilessly exploit the misery of others” for money.

“Let us join our hearts and forces so that the seas and deserts are not cemeteries but spaces where God may open up roads to freedom and fraternity,” he said.