Egyptian Billionaire Offered To Buy an ISLAND For Fleeing Migrants and Help Them Rebuild their Country
The Egyptian Billionaire Offered To Buy an ISLAND For Fleeing Migrants is named Naguib Sawiris.
Sawiris is the chief executive of Orascom TMT, which operates mobile telephone networks in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries plus Korea as well as underwater communications networks.
He has offered to buy an island from Greece or Italy and develop it to help the people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts.
The Egyptian businessman has announced his intention on Twitter, saying:
‘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’.
So far, since January, more than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe, many of them were Syrians who fled their country’s four-and-a-half year conflict.
His offer also comes just days after the heartbreaking images of a three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi whose lifeless body was found washed up on a Turkish beach after drowning in the Mediterranean.
Sawiris said in a television interview that he would approach the governments of Greece and Italy about his plan.
Asked whether he believed it could work, he said: ‘Of course it’s feasible.’
‘You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees.’
Sawiris said an island off Greece or Italy could cost between $10 million and $100 million, but added the ‘main thing is investment in infrastructure’.
‘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, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back,’ said Sawiris, whose family developed the popular El Gouna resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.
The businessman has already came up with the plan and he is aware that could face challenges, including the likely difficulty of persuading Greece or Italy to sell an island and figuring out jurisdiction and customs regulations.
‘But those who took shelter would be treated as ‘human beings,’ he said. ‘The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle.’
Today, the father of Aylan Kurdi, who drowned alongside his brother and mother, buried his family in Kobane, the Syrian city where they had fled ISIS to seek a new life in Europe.
In such dark times there still are people who are good at heart and try to come up with solutions to help those in need.
Naguib Sawiris who offered to buy an island and rehouse refugees is one of those people.
What do you think about this billionaire who tries to help people who are leaving Syria and give them a new start?
