Christian billionaire Naguib Sawiris plans to buy an island to house hundreds of thousands of refugees, naming it after Aylan Kurdi.
The Egyptian telecom billionaire has contacted the prime ministers of Greece and Italy about buying an island in order to house and employ 100,000 – 200,000 refugees.
Sawiris told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he was moved into action by the photo of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi and pictures of the treatment of refugees in Hungary.
"I cannot just sit like that and just do nothing, you know, and pretend it's not my problem."
He admits that his plans are ambitious and the real challenges stretch beyond the purchase of the island.
"The challenge for this idea is not just finding the island and buying the island." He said logistics such as gaining consent from the prime minister to house and host refugees is the biggest potential obstacle.
"You can't just take people and put them on an island that you bought that falls under jurisdiction. They don't have visas. We need... a passport control agency. We need people to check them out. You need their data. You need customs. So the real challenge of the idea is that to have the authorities accept the fact that you will host immigrants there."
He is confident if the logistics can be worked out that his plans are feasible.
He said he both wants to plan a sustainable environment and quickly, because the war is not likely to end soon and winter is coming.
"I would build a small temporary marina. I would build temporary housing and temporary school and temporary hospital. And then we will use these people and provide them jobs to build a new city on the island, to build this island."
His plans are not just to provide temporary refuge, but a workable city, as "this war is not going to end in weeks or months."
Sawiris said that the world must unite around fighting ISIS, who he refers to as soldiers of the devil: "They are the ones chopping heads, killing innocent people, kidnapping and ransoming and raping women in front of our eyes."
