News  |  World  |  Europe  

Trump suggested Sahara wall to stem migrants: Madrid

By AFP |   20 September 2018   |   4:18 pm  

Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Spain’s foreign minister revealed that US President Donald Trump suggested building a wall along the Sahara desert to stem the arrival of migrants, as he plans to do on the Mexican border.

“Closing ports is not a solution, and neither is building a wall along the Sahara like President Trump suggested to me recently,” Josep Borrell told a lunchtime gathering this week, according to a video released by Spanish media.

“‘Just build a wall that borders the Sahara’,” he quoted Trump as telling him.

“‘But do you know how big the Sahara is?’,” the minister responded.

He did not give any further details.

The reported comments come as EU leaders are locked in talks in Salzburg over how to deal with the number of migrants arriving in Europe.

Spain is at the frontline of this issue, having overtaken Italy to become the number one point of entry for migrants coming to Europe by sea or by land from Africa.

Many of these cross the Sahara to Morocco and on to Spain across the Mediterranean or over two high fences into the Spanish overseas territories of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco.

Trump’s proposed wall along the US-Mexico border, which spans 3,200 kilometres (2,000 miles), could cost up to $20 billion (17 billion euros) according to some estimates.

The Sahara desert, meanwhile, spans all of northern Africa from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, or close to 5,000 kilometres.

You may also like

8 hours ago
Kampala, Uganda - 30 June 2023 - Guaranty Trust Bank (Uganda) Ltd (“GTBank Uganda”) today announced its intention to transition from a Tier 1 Commercial Bank to a Tier 2 Credit Institution. This position has become necessary in view of the Bank’s current paid-up share capital position of UGX 41 billion (approx. USD 11.02 million) and the recent increase in the minimum paid-up share capital requirement for Tier 1 Commercial Banks operating in Uganda to UGX 120 billion (approx. USD 32.26 million) effective 31st December 2022, and subsequently to UGX 150 Billion (approx. USD 40.32Million) by 30th June 2024.
33 mins ago
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with the Chairman of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Adebayo Ogunlesi, and his team at the State House, Abuja on Wednesday. Although details of the meeting are undisclosed. However, sources hinted that their conversation revolved around attracting foreign investments into the Nigerian economy. Ogunlesi is a Nigerian lawyer and investment banker,…
36 mins ago
Anti-establishment figure Bassirou Diomaye Faye has comfortably won the Senegalese presidential election with 54.28 percent of votes in the first round, official provisional results showed Wednesday.