President Trump recommended building a wall across the Sahara to solve Europe’s migrant crisis, Spain’s foreign minister says.
The comments were made duringĀ a visit Minister Josep Borrell made to the US at the end of June, reports El Pais.
Josep Borrell, also a former President of the European Parliament, disagreed with the strategy.
Borrell recounted his conversation with the US president at a lunch event in Madrid this week.
“The border with the Sahara cannot be bigger than our border with Mexico,” the Trump is reported to have said.
The US-Mexico border is 1,954 miles (3,145 km) long. The Sahara desert stretches for 3,000 miles.
Spain has no sovereignty over the Sahara, but it does possess two small enclaves on the north African coast, Ceuta and Melilla, separated from Morocco by controversial wire fences.
The enclaves have become magnets for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
Since January of this year, 35,000 migrants arrived in Spain, the highest number received by any EU country.
