Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris alleged through a tweet that he has found two Greek islands that he could potentially purchase to host refugees.
Sawiris, who is worth an estimated 2.9 billion dollars according to Forbes, had expressed his interest in buying a Greek or Italian island where he would host some of the migrants that enter Europe through Greece and Italy.
“Mr. Sawiris has currently 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 negotiations provided they can acquire the approval of the government of Greece to host the maximum number of refugees, allowable according to Greek laws. We are seeking the government’s consent to be willing to take care of the administrative process of permitting entrance of the refugees to the island, which fall under Greek jurisdiction,” a press release by his communication office reads.
The press release’s headline indicates that the island would take the name of Aylan, in honor of the 3-year old Aylan Kurdi who drowned during his family’s effort to cross from Turkey to Greece.
Sawiris further claims that he has been approached by the United Nations Refugee Agency and that he plans to communicate with them for a potential cooperation, which he is open to.
“We have received tons of interest from people who are willing to donate to this project, tweeted Mr. Sawiris, the best way to incorporate donations from people is to establish a joint-stock company with a capital of 100 millions dollars,” the post adds.
Sawiri’s tweet:
After massive interest to contribute through donations&volunteering I'm sharing latest updates #aylanISLAND project. pic.twitter.com/FNNkbWinSA
— Naguib Sawiris (@NaguibSawiris) September 14, 2015
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