Naguib Sawiris, who as CEO of the Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Media and Technology is believed to be worth at least $2.9 billion, spoke on an episode of “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that will air Sunday.

The first step of his plan to resolve the refugee crisis requires getting the consent of Greece or Italy, from whom he plans to purchase the island. Since the refugees do not have visas, there must still be a country willing to process their entry.

Sawiris appeared to imply that providing some kind of legal status for the refugees, even on an uninhabited island, would be harder than buying the island itself.

“You can’t just take people and put them on an island that you bought that falls under jurisdiction,” Sawiris told Fareed Zakaria, according to a transcript of the interview.

“We need — a passport control agency,” he added. “We need people to check them out. You need their data. You need customs.”

The next step is to identify and buy the island from Greece or Italy. Sawaris estimates there are dozens of relatively uninhabited islands that could accommodate refugees, he told Agence France-Presse.

The rest of the work, Sawiris said, he can handle on his own and is “very simple” by comparison. 

Sawiris imagines building a temporary marina on the island to receive the refugees, as well as housing, schools and a hospital for the families to use when they arrive. Then he would give them jobs building a city on the island, because, he said, “this war is not going to end in weeks or in months. It may be years even.” SOURCE