He is hoping to offer the island in order to give a temporary home and job for the refugees away from “dangerous conflict”, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The chairman and chief executive of Orascom Telecom, Media and Technology, blamed bureaucracy and middle-level officials in Egypt for what he called “stagnation”.

Billionaire Naguib Sawiris, Egypt’s third richest man, is going to make his biggest, grandest and most sweeping gesture yet.

“All I need is permission to put these people on this island”. Appearing on the private TV station CBC, he said, “I have not lagged behind in serving Egypt. My offer for refugees is purely humanitarian. Provide me with the island and I will do the rest”.

Sawiris named the proposed island “Aylan” after the three-year-old Syrian toddler, Aylan Kurdi, who drowned in the sea off Turkey last week while his family were attempting to reach Europe.

By the next day, he had crafted a hashtag for his endeavour, #AylanIsland, and has begun asking for volunteers to help him build on the island once he’s purchased it.

“If he is interested he can use our island … though it’s only 9.1 hectares”, he told VICE News.