Egyptian Billionaire Wants to Buy an Island to Shelter Syrian Refugees

Miami – While most of the world is not responding to the needs of refugees, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, Chief Executive of Orascom TMT has risen to the occasion. Sawiris is offering to buy a vacant island in the Mediterranean Sea and develop it to house thousands of suffering refugees.

He announced his offer on his Twitter account, making worldwide headlines. Sawiris makes a call to, “Greece or Italy sell me an island, I’ll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country”.

It may sound like an unrealistic plan to many, but not for Sawiris. He means serious business announcing during a television interview that he is willing to approach Greece’s and Italy’s governments about purchasing an island, regardless of the challenges and difficulties in regulations.

According to AFP, the billionaire is confident his plan would work, “of course it’s feasible. You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees”.

More than 3 million Syrians have fled Syria in the last few years of violence and civil war in the country and over 2,500 refugees have died seeking new lands to live, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

The Egyptian mogul even talked to AFP about a plan for infrastructure. He said there would be “temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals. And if things improve [in their country], whoever wants to go back, goes back”.

Committed to his idea, Sawiris, who also owns an Egyptian television station and El Gouna Resort, would not mind paying the millions of dollars to help these migrants.

The presumed cost of these Mediterranean islands ranges between $10 million and $100 million dollars.