A plan for ‘Aylan island’

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris wants to solve the refugee crisis in Europe by creating two new countries for those fleeing theirs

Naguib Sawiris, the chief executive officer of Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Media and Technology, is worth an estimated $3 billion — he is one of Egypt’s richest men and has had one of the craziest, most ambitious ideas about how to deal with the ongoing refugee crisis plaguing Europe’s politics and infrastructure. He wants to buy two islands, fill them with fleeing refugees, provide them with jobs and give the islands a legitimate legal cover.

In a rare interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Sawiris explained the amount of paperwork the project will require, saying, “You can’t just take people and put them on an island that you bought. You need a passport control agency. You need people to check them out. You need their data. You need customs.” The next step involves convincing Italy or Greece to part with two of the several little islands scattered around the main landmass.

Upon fruition, Sawiris’ plans will involve the following numbers: Purchase cost of the islands will be anything between $10 million and $100 million, they will take in close to 100,000 to 200,000 refugees and he’s prepared to foot most of the enormous bill.

In a media release, the billionaire added more details about the venture. A communique from his office read, “Mr Sawiris has identified two privately owned Greek islands that constitute a good opportunity for the project. We have corresponded with their owners and expressed our interest to go into negotiation with them provided they can acquire the approval of the government of Greece to host the maximum number of refugees allowable according to Greek laws.”

The United Nations, meanwhile, is willing to go dutch. “Mr Sawiris has been approached by UNHCR and is going to meet with them soon to discuss possible areas of co-operation. He welcomes co-operating with the UN refugee agency, provided his idea does not get held back by any bureaucracy,” the note added.

Red tape and “unnecessary criticism” are things the magnate has warned against. He has been tweeting virtually non-stop (even quoting Rabindranath Tagore) ever since his plan was announced and his social media stream targeted by “haters”.

But how is he planning to shore up so much capital to take this massive humanitarian mission off the ground? The answer is simple — he can. As it turns out, Sawiris is extremely popular in Egypt. His firm, Orascom, runs “mobile telephone networks and underwater communications networks” and is one of the country’s largest employers in the private sector. He has even founded a political party called the Al Masreyeen Al Ahrrar and is part of several of Egypt’s forefront developmental agencies.

The island buying plan has also made him famous worldwide — the married father of four claims that he has received close to 10,000 emails filled with suggestions and encouragement. “The way they (refugees) are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle. (On the islands), 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 and hospitals,” he told AFP. “And if things improve, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back,” he added.

Amidst all this noise about “building a continent”, Sawiris has been constantly reminding the world why he’s doing this. It’s for little Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned while trying to make it to Greece’s shores with his family. “That was the moment. The Gulf nations should really be pitching in or trying to help these poor people. I mean, I cannot just sit like that and just do nothing, you know, and pretend that it’s not my problem,” he said during the interview with CNN.

And in memory of the child who died without a country, one of the proposed islands will be named ‘Aylan Island’ — a home for all those who have been displaced by war, strife, hunger and some of the greatest mistakes of 21st century humanity.