Egyptian billionaire offers to buy a Mediterranean island for refugees
We heard about 鈥淩efugee Nation鈥� last month, the proposal by real estate mogul Jason Buzi that suggested giving asylum seekers a state of their own.
Now, an Egyptian billionaire is offering to buy an island for refugees, this time off the coast of Greece or Italy. Its name? 鈥淚ndependence.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 clear at first how serious telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris was being when he initially announced these musings on Twitter.
But in an interview with Thursday, Mr. Sawiris insisted his plan could work, and said that he would be approaching the governments of those countries.
鈥淥f course it's feasible,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees.鈥�
Sawiris noted that the island could cost between $10 million and $100 million. But building up the required infrastructure would be 鈥渢he main thing,鈥� he said.
The billionaire described how the island would have "temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals.鈥�
Sawiris said it would probably be difficult to convince Greece or Italy to sell off an island. He鈥檇 also have to form new jurisdiction and customs regulations.听
But his vision for how life on the island would look is clear: refugees would be treated as 鈥渉uman beings,鈥� he told AFP. 鈥淭he way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle.鈥�
鈥淎nd if things improve, whoever wants to go back [to their homeland] goes back,鈥� said Sawiris.
Sawiris is the in Egypt, according to Forbes. He owns Orascom TMT, which operates mobile networks across countries in the Middle East and Africa and serves as .听
The billionaire鈥檚 attitude is also indicative of a sea change in views of migrants that has unfolded in recent weeks, as photographs of a 3-year-old Syrian boy lying dead on a Turkish beach have聽prompted a shift in tolerance toward migrants arriving in Europe, 海角大神 reported.
The UK that it would allow the resettlement of 鈥渢housands鈥� more refugees from Syrian border camps, as pressure intensifies on Europe to open its borders to more asylum seekers.
More than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January, many of them Syrians who fled their country's ongoing civil war, according to AFP.
