Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris wants to buy island for refugees

[webfact]

Billionaire Naguib Sawiris wants to buy island for refugees

SYNEY: -- AN EGYPTIAN billionaire has come up with an unconventional solution to Europe’s refugee crisis — and he wants your help to make it work.

Telecommunications mogul and self-described “freedom fighter” Naguib Sawiris wants Italy or Greece to sell him an island for refugees to settle on.

He announced the “crazy idea” in a stream of tweets but is deadly serious about how it could work. The plan is to call it Aylan Island after the three-year-old boy who died off the coast of Turkey. Interested parties are invited to email their ideas to [email protected].

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

Mr Sawiris - who owns an Egyptian television station and mobile phone network - said there are “dozens of islands” in Europe which are deserted.

He said they could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees with “temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals.

Full story: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/billionaire-naguib-sawiris-wants-to-buy-island-for-refugees/story-e6frfq80-1227516811404

-- News.com.au 2015-09-07

[daveAustin]

IS mark II!

[phil2]

Great idea, but the powers that be might not support it.

[capcc76]

Although it sound as if immigrants have already pretty much destroyed Ireland, are there no better choices? A deserted Island or two in the Pacific somewhere would be a much better choice and would also create a natural barrier to keep them put.

[Credo]

There are a lot of people fleeing. He might need a big island. Maybe Australia?

[Kerryd]

I pointed out in the original news article about how short sighted the initial idea was. For starters there are over 3 million Syrian refugees alone (by UNHCR estimates). Nextly, the time and $$ it would take to set up camps on those "deserted" islands that supposedly can hold hundreds of thousands of people ?

Someone may want to check what is being loaded into their shisha pipes !

Islands that could hold (and house) hundreds of thousands of refugees are not likely to be "uninhabited" as this guy claims. Perhaps ones that could barely hold "hundreds" may be but the larger ones ? If they were uninhabited, there would probably be a very good reason for it.

The cost to set up temporary accommodations, kitchens, waste collection/treatment and all the other things needed to run large cities would be huge by itself, not to mention the cost of hiring (most of) those refugees to build more permanent structures (and the cost of all those structures).

Then what ? For starters the first chance they got half those refugees would sneak off and try to get into Europe anyways. The rest wouldn't be happy where they were stuck and it wouldn't be long before "little Syria" started becoming a major humanitarian problem for all involved (as it wouldn't take much for the old "Sunni/Shia" issues to crop up, again).

Meanwhile, what about all the Iraqi, Yazidi and Kurd refugees ? Too bad so sad for them. I'm guessing that it's too bad, so sad for all the African refugee/migrants as well that are dying by the boatload everyday while trying to cross the Med.

(Note that the UNHCR estimates that as of mid 2014 (over a year ago) there are over 13 million refugees "of concern" around the world, not including the 5 million Palestinians).

That's a lot of islands that'd need to be bought. (I'd suggest sending them all to Australia but some there would probably object ! Northern Canada has tons of open space, as long as you don't mind -40 in the winters and mosquitoes the size of eagles in the summer (which only lasts a couple of weeks up there anyways) !

Hmmm, Greenland sounds nice as well ! (The joke is that the Vikings named it Greenland so that anyone else following them would go there, thinking it was actually "green" and not covered in ice !)

[tingtongfarang]

Cant imagine the greeks being willing to give any islands away then paying for housing and infrastructure either now or the near future

[lovelomsak]

Sounds great to me i had the same idea. Give them their Island let them survive on their own Give them hand tools and blankets and matches and let them go at it. Oh and maybe some domestic animals like chickens and pigs. Build a better life out of the wilderness instead of foreign country tax payers money. In the future they could sell movie rights.

[Credo]

Hey, isn't one of the Emirates actually making islands? Sounds like an ideal situation.

[Kerryd]

Cant imagine the greeks being willing to give any islands away then paying for housing and infrastructure either now or the near future

Funny you should say that - there is another thread running about all the problems the Greeks are having on one island (Lesbos) with the 20,000(ish) "refugees" they have (currently). Greek population of 100,000 and having troubles maintaining control over 20,000 migrants. Seems a lot of the local population have already started losing patience with the actions of those "migrants" (not all, but a lot).

Hmmmmm, what was that plan again, plunk hundreds of thousands of those "refugee/migrants" onto deserted islands ? Oh yeah, that'll work real well.

[steven100]

It's not as silly as it sounds. I always said this was one solution. Have the wealthier countries put up say 40 billion euros to build accommodation, schools, hospitals, power station, factories, transport ..... assist them with food for the first 2 years ...

then after two yrs they have to support themselves with factories, farms for food, and run it as a city ... only they produce everything themselves.

[capcc76]

No matter what, let him live with all of his immigrants.

[TimmyT]

the only problem is that "refugees" will not agree for this. They cross Europe to live on German's welfare but not to work hard to build there own nation.

but it can be a good excuse to send them back: you run away from the war? we give you a peaceful place with a nice climate to live and work for yourself! you don't want this? excellent! it means life conditions at your homeland are not so harsh. good bye, dear friends!

and second reason why it's not gonna work - US will never allow a new independent nation to emerge - too many people now want to do the same - to build a low or no tax paradise.

Washington misters are not gonna like it

lol

[abrahamzvi]

Although it sound as if immigrants have already pretty much destroyed Ireland, are there no better choices? A deserted Island or two in the Pacific somewhere would be a much better choice and would also create a natural barrier to keep them put.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A REFUGEE YOURSELF? I ASSUME NOT, OTHERWISE YOU WOULDN'T BE SO HEARTLESS.

[bangon04]

Bahrain would be perfect - already has the infrastructure......and the Mosques. Expensive though...

Why only an island - Yemen is not being used for anything useful these days....or Somalia?.

Maybe Basher Assad would take an big enough offer to sell Syria and he fly away and could leave it to the people...

Or what about the island of Mindanao... surely he could afford that. Perfect.

[whatawonderfulday]

Maybe he could buy the UK and send them there. It is 50% full of immigrants anyway so a few more thousands won't be noticed.

[Srikcir]

The plan is to call it Aylan Island.

I would call it a Concentration Camp.

[capcc76]

Although it sound as if immigrants have already pretty much destroyed Ireland, are there no better choices? A deserted Island or two in the Pacific somewhere would be a much better choice and would also create a natural barrier to keep them put.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A REFUGEE YOURSELF? I ASSUME NOT, OTHERWISE YOU WOULDN'T BE SO HEARTLESS.

I would have no problem with them if they did not time and time again turn out to be bad disruptive people. Sometimes, one has to be selfish to preserve the sanctity of their family, home and welfare country.

[Linky]

Although it sound as if immigrants have already pretty much destroyed Ireland, are there no better choices? A deserted Island or two in the Pacific somewhere would be a much better choice and would also create a natural barrier to keep them put.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A REFUGEE YOURSELF? I ASSUME NOT, OTHERWISE YOU WOULDN'T BE SO HEARTLESS.

I would have no problem with them if they did not time and time again turn out to be bad disruptive people. Sometimes, one has to be selfish to preserve the sanctity of their family, home and welfare country.

How dare they complain about the wonderful Assad and the choice of his govt or ISIS. Must be pure bliss for them.

Cant contemplate how part of the issue is because the west got rid of Hussein and out comes ISIS. Cant possibly blame anything on the west to take some ownership of the problems these people have found themselves in.

It just has to be their own fault.

Sarcasm

Edited September 8, 2015 by Linky

[capcc76]

Case in point. They are nothing but disruptive people. Rather than being grateful, they want to blow your butt up or sue you.

Please tell me something redeeming about these people and how they will benefit the Western world in the long run.

--------

Muslim flight attendant says she was suspended for refusing to serve alcohol

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/05/travel/muslim-flight-attendant-feat/

[Linky]

Case in point. They are nothing but disruptive people. Rather than being grateful, they want to blow your butt up or sue you.

Please tell me something redeeming about these people and how they will benefit the Western world in the long run.

--------

Muslim flight attendant says she was suspended for refusing to serve alcohol

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/05/travel/muslim-flight-attendant-feat/

'THESE PEOPLE'.. they are people that are suffering and the west is partly to blame for that.

Do you feel the same way about the Christian refugees that are also part of the Syrian refugees or is your bigotry confined to the muslims?

Edit: your link re the flight attendant is way off topic but I agree to suspending a person for not doing their job. Same as the western flight attendant should be suspended for refusing to serve a can of coke to a muslim woman.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Linky

[capcc76]

Case in point. They are nothing but disruptive people. Rather than being grateful, they want to blow your butt up or sue you.

Please tell me something redeeming about these people and how they will benefit the Western world in the long run.

--------

Muslim flight attendant says she was suspended for refusing to serve alcohol

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/05/travel/muslim-flight-attendant-feat/

'THESE PEOPLE'.. they are people that are suffering and the west is partly to blame for that.

Do you feel the same way about the Christian refugees that are also part of the Syrian refugees or is your bigotry confined to the muslims?

Edit: your link re the flight attendant is way off topic but I agree to suspending a person for not doing their job. Same as the western flight attendant should be suspended for refusing to serve a can of coke to a muslim woman.

The West is not to blame any more than there parents for having them.

That you blame the west goes to show that these people will likely try to end up in the West while hating or blaming the West. We know that turns out not so well.

Nope, they all need to stay home and work it out in their countries regardless of their religions or go to other Countries that embrace, accept and live their cultural values.

The problem with these people is there is they don't come with a tag saying good or bad, terrorist type or non-terrorist type.

You wanting to label people as a bigot may make you feel better about your own self, but people in the West need to start preserving themselves and their own cultures.

Edited September 8, 2015 by capcc76

[capcc76]

Case in point. They are nothing but disruptive people. Rather than being grateful, they want to blow your butt up or sue you.

Please tell me something redeeming about these people and how they will benefit the Western world in the long run.

--------

Muslim flight attendant says she was suspended for refusing to serve alcohol

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/05/travel/muslim-flight-attendant-feat/

'THESE PEOPLE'.. they are people that are suffering and the west is partly to blame for that.

Do you feel the same way about the Christian refugees that are also part of the Syrian refugees or is your bigotry confined to the muslims?

Edit: your link re the flight attendant is way off topic but I agree to suspending a person for not doing their job. Same as the western flight attendant should be suspended for refusing to serve a can of coke to a muslim woman.

RE: blame

If blame is the issue, why aren't these so called Syrian refugees heading toward Russia or other countries in ME? Because it ain't about safety, it is all about hand out system and better life than they could build for themselves in their own countries to which they have no plans of returning.

[alphaflight]

Greenland is pretty big.....

[piersbeckett]

Sounds great to me i had the same idea. Give them their Island let them survive on their own Give them hand tools and blankets and matches and let them go at it. Oh and maybe some domestic animals like chickens and pigs. Build a better life out of the wilderness instead of foreign country tax payers money. In the future they could sell movie rights.

They won't be wanting pigs.