They say "no man is an island," but that won't stop him from buying one.
He called it a "crazy idea," and maybe it is.
Earlier this month, Egyptian billionaire and Orascom Telecom CEO Naguib Sawiris came forward with a potential, albeit unconventional, approach to solving the refugee crisis across parts of Europe and Africa.
On Sept. 1, 2015, Sawiris shared his idea with his Twitter followers: What if he just ... bought an island for the refugees to call home?
Greece or Italy sell me an island,ill call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country— Naguib Sawiris (@NaguibSawiris) September 1, 2015
Crazy idea .. Maybe but at least temporary until they can return to their countries ??!!— Naguib Sawiris (@NaguibSawiris) September 1, 2015
He wasn't serious. Was he? How would this even work?
At first, it wasn't really clear whether he was serious, or if this was more like the time when William Shatner proposed a $30 billion Kickstarter campaign to help put an end to the California drought. Obviously, Shatner's plan never materialized, but...
...it turns out that yes, Sawiris is serious about this. According to an interview with CNN, he's been in contact with the owners of two privately-owned Greek Islands he thinks might be a realistic fit to bring his plan to life.
Syrian refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos earlier this month. Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images.
Of course, there'd be plenty of work to go around on Sawiris' new island nation in terms of infrastructure.
As he puts it, he just wants to buy the island, get its new citizens set up with some of the basics, and then cede control to the people. Again, from his interview with CNN:
"It's a very simple solution. They sell the island to me and I'll make a temporary shelter for these people. I'll make a small port or marina for the boats to land there. I'll employ the people to build their own homes, their schools, a hospital, a university, a hotel. ... All I need is the permission to put these people on this island. After that I don't need anything anymore from them. I'll pay them for the island, I'll provide the jobs, I'll take care of all the logistics. I know I can do that."
As far as location is concerned, Greece and Italy actually make a lot of sense.
Some of the most harrowing paths refugees are taking to escape their homelands involve traveling across the Mediterranean Sea to safety. An island located somewhere off the coast of either Greece or Italy would be fairly convenient to access for refugees coming from Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Libya.
Sawiris says he is working with the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees to help in other ways.
Even if the plan for an island never comes to fruition, Sawiris has made it clear that he wants to help in whatever way he can. Even if all goes according to plan, it's not a cure for the refugee crisis, but more a treatment of its symptoms.
Photo by Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images.
Sawiris estimates that the islands he's looking at could manage a population between 100,000 and 200,000 people. Given that there are millions of refugees in the world, it's going to take more than any one person (or any two islands) to help them all. Even so, this is an amazing, creative, and generous approach to addressing this humanitarian crisis.
"I sometimes think the politicians don't have a heart," Sawiris says. And perhaps his generosity will help them find it.
For more on Sawiris' island plan, check out this video from Seeker Daily:
Original video from Seeker Daily.
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