Property Mogul Wants to Create New Country For Refugees to Solve the Migrant Crisis
Property Mogul Wants to Create New Country For Refugees to Solve the Migrant Crisis
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Migrants react after they couldn't find a seat on the train heading to the Serbian border, where they will migrate towards Western European nations, at the train station in Gevgelija, Macedonia, July 26, 2015.Georgi Licovski—EPA
American property mogul Jason Buzi says he has a solution for the global migrant crisis: a new country just for refugees.
“We have a lot of stateless individuals all over the world right now,” Buzi told the Washington Postin an interview. “The idea is, if we could give them a state of their own, at least they’d have a place to live in safety and be allowed to live and work like everybody else.”
“It’s almost shocking to me that nobody’s talking about this as a solution,” he added. Around the world, more than 60 million people have been displaced from their homes, with many living in large camps in poor conditions. State leaders, particularly in Europe, have struggled on how to address the influx of migrants into their countries.
Buzi claims he has already spent between $10,000 and $15,000 out of his own pocket setting up a team to promote the new state, which he calls Refugee Nation. The mogul suggests that an unhibited island owned by another state might be suitable for the new country. He’s also hoping to get support from heavy weights to get the state set up, saying, “If you’ve got Angelina Jolie, for instance, behind it, it’s going to influence a lot more people and get more people to know about it.”
But when it comes to how the newly created state would function — socially, politically and financially — Buzi says details will have to be worked out in the future. “Right now it’s a little like meeting a girl on a first date,” he told the Post, “I’m not thinking yet about what I’m going to name my children, right?”
The Tiny Greek Island of Kos at the Center of the Refugee Crisis
A dinghy overcrowded with Afghan migrants arrives on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015.Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesAfghan migrants arrive on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesAn Afghan migrant girl holds the hand of a woman as they arrive on the Greek island of Kos, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesA Syrian refugee prays on the beach after arriving on the Greek island of Kos, via a dinghy boat over part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, on May 26, 2015. Yannis Behrakis—ReutersHundreds of newly arrived migrants walk toward a temporary shelter after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, on May 26, 2015. Yannis Behrakis—ReutersAn Afghan migrant family poses next to a deserted hotel, where hundreds of migrants have found temporary shelter, on the Greek island of Kos on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesAfghan migrants wash next to a deserted hotel, where hundreds of migrants have found temporary shelter, on the Greek island of Kos on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesA migrant man from Bangladesh brushes his hair in a broken mirror in an abandoned hotel, acting as a temporary shelter, on the Greek island of Kos on May 29, 2015.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesA mother sits with her two young sons as they get ready to sleep in the corridor of an abandoned hotel that many migrants are using as a temporary shelter on the Greek island of Kos on May 30, 2015.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesMigrants gather outside the police station on the Greek island of Kos to collect documentation to facilitate their onward journey into Europe on June 1, 2015.Dan Kitwood—Getty ImagesAn Afghan woman sits with her child at a dock at the port of the Greek island of Kos on May 27, 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis—AFP/Getty ImagesLife vests and a deflated dinghy are seen on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, following the arrival of Afghan immigrants, on May 30, 2015.Yannis Behrakis—Reuters
