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The Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has offered to buy an island off Greece or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts.
The telecoms tycoon first announced the initiative on Twitter. He wrote “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,” he wrote.
Sawiris said in an interview that he would approach the governments of Greece and Italy about the plan. Asked and when he have been asked if he believed it could work he said: “Of course it’s feasible.”
He said that an island off Greece or Italy could cost between $10 million and $100 million” and that the “main thing is investment in infrastructure”.
He added 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.
He said ” those who took shelter would be treated as (human beings)The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle.”
He conceded such a plan could face challenges, including the likely difficulty of persuading Greece or Italy to sell an island, and figuring out jurisdiction and customs regulations.
More than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January, many of them Syrians who fled their country’s four-and-a-half year conflict.
