Billionaire Planning to Buy ‘Aylan Island’ to House Refugees

Billionaire Planning to Buy ‘Aylan Island’ to House Refugees
Egyptian billionaire businessman Naguib Sawiris, in a file photo, wants to buy an island for refugees. AP Photo/Hassan Ammar
Zachary Stieber
Zachary Stieber
Senior Reporter
|Updated:

Billionaire Naguib Sawiris is moving forward with his plan to buy an island to house refugees on.

The Egyptian businessman, who is Africa’s 10th richest man, told his followers on Twitter back in September that he wanted to buy an island from Greece or Italy to house refugees.

The tweet got such a huge response that Sawiris announced later that month that he would take public donations for the project and establish a joint-stock company with $100 million in capital. It’s unclear how much of his money would be involved.

Now a spokesperson says Sawiris is studying 17 Greek islands that would work for his plans, and is more optimistic about his bold plan.

“But due to the delicacy of the issue he has not disclosed specific reasons for his optimism,” the spokesperson told Forbes

Sawiris is trying to find out which island could accommodate the highest number of refugees, while trying to get approval from the Greek government to purchase an island, which he would name Aylan Island to honor the 3-year-old Syrian boy whose drowned body washed up on a Turkish beach.

In this Monday Sept. 7, 2015 photo, a sand sculpture pays tribute to three year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, whose haunting image hammered home the Syrian migrant crisis to the world. He died along with 5-year-old brother and their mother when their small rubber boat capsized as it headed for Greece. (AP Photo)
In this Monday Sept. 7, 2015 photo, a sand sculpture pays tribute to three year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, whose haunting image hammered home the Syrian migrant crisis to the world. He died along with 5-year-old brother and their mother when their small rubber boat capsized as it headed for Greece. AP Photo
Zachary Stieber
Zachary Stieber
Senior Reporter
Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news. Contact Zachary at [email protected]
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