US President Donald Trump has recently urged the Spanish government to solve the migration crisis by building a wall across the Sahara desert. This is similar to Trump’s plan to build a wall to stop Mexican illegal immigrants from entering the USA.

Spain’s foreign minister Josep Borrell revealed the information at a lunch event in Madrid this week, saying Trump ignored Spanish diplomats’ scepticism over the suggestion, who had informed the US President that the Sahara Desert spans a distance of around 3,000 miles. Trump brushed this off, saying the border with the Sahara simply can’t be longer than their border with Mexico.

Donald Trump and the famous wall

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised voters that he would build a wall across the border with Mexico, an area about 2,000 miles in length. However, even if Spain agreed to build a wall across the Sahara, plans would be complicated as there are only two small Spanish enclaves in northern Africa – Melilla and Ceuta. This would mean that the wall would have to span foreign territory bordering the Sahara Desert.

Borrell revealed the information at a lunch in Madrid earlier this week and it was soon all over the Spanish media.

However, speaking to The Guardian newspaper, a spokesman for Borrell said they can confirm that the Foreign Minister said that, but that they wouldn’t be making further comment on the issue of the Sahara wall.

Spanish royal visit to the White House

According to The Hill, it is believed Trump made the wall suggestion when the foreign minister accompanied King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia on an official visit to the White House in June this year.

Tens of thousands of migrants have travelled across the Mediterranean to Spain, seeing the country receiving more than Greece and Italy.

While some countries are turning migrants away, Spain is accepting them. Spain’s new Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez was praised for saying the country would take the 630 migrants on the Aquarius rescue ship after Italy and Malta turned them away.

Reports by Europa Press and El Pais quoted Borrell as saying Spain has fixed its economic problem but said the migrant situation is an emotional problem which can’t be fixed with money. He went on to explain that most European societies are not structured to take in over a certain percentage of the migrants, especially is those migrants are Muslims.

He said Spain’s problem does not involve “mass migration,” and that the problems of Middle Eastern countries taking in Syrian refugees dwarfs Spain’s migration problems.