President Trump reportedly suggested the Spanish government build a wall across the Sahara desert to mitigate Europe’s migrant crisis.
“The Sahara border can’t be bigger than our border with Mexico,” Trump said, according to the Guardian.
Spain’s foreign minister recounted Trump’s remarks this week at a lunch in Madrid, the news outlet reported Wednesday. The president is believed to have made the statements when the country’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, accompanied Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia to the White House in June.
The White House confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Trump discussed “migration challenges with his Spanish interlocutors,” but did not “have record of this specific comment.”
The Sahara stretches approximately 3,000 miles across Africa, compared with the U.S.-Mexico border, which runs about 2,000 miles. The Sahara desert does not border Spain, so the nation would have to coordinate with foreign governments in order to construct a wall-like structure. The terrain would similarly pose another challenge for the project.
The International Organization for Migration reported in 2018 that Spain now receives more migrants arriving via the Mediterranean Sea than Italy and Greece. The majority of migrants come from Guinea, Morocco, and Mali. Mali and Morocco’s borders fall within the Sahara, while Guinea is considered to be part of Sub-Saharan Africa.
A migrant crisis has plagued Spain and its European neighbors since about 2015. Political upheaval in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia is considered to be the main “push factor,” according to the Council of Foreign Relations.
