diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 095ae0e82c00..1c1ebdb04a0d 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -540,6 +540,10 @@ Documentation
 Build
 -----
 
+- Issue #20211: Do not add the directory for installing C header files and the
+  directory for installing object code libraries to the cross compilation
+  search paths. Original patch by Thomas Petazzoni.
+
 - Issue #28849: Do not define sys.implementation._multiarch on Android.
 
 - Issue #10656: Fix out-of-tree building on AIX.  Patch by Tristan Carel and
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index cd05bb6b9000..2cbe9a5805f1 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -533,8 +533,9 @@ class PyBuildExt(build_ext):
                     for directory in reversed(options.dirs):
                         add_dir_to_list(dir_list, directory)
 
-        if os.path.normpath(sys.base_prefix) != '/usr' \
-                and not sysconfig.get_config_var('PYTHONFRAMEWORK'):
+        if (not cross_compiling and
+                os.path.normpath(sys.base_prefix) != '/usr' and
+                not sysconfig.get_config_var('PYTHONFRAMEWORK')):
             # OSX note: Don't add LIBDIR and INCLUDEDIR to building a framework
             # (PYTHONFRAMEWORK is set) to avoid # linking problems when
             # building a framework with different architectures than