Naguib Sawiris (pictured at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010) has offered to buy an island from Greece or Italy so migrants can build their own country

An Egyptian billionaire has offered to buy an island from Greece or Italy and develop it to help hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Syria and other conflicts.

Announcing the initiative on Twitter, telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris said: 'Greece or Italy sell me an island, I'll call its independence and host the migrants and provide jobs for them building their new country'.

More than 2,300 people have died at sea trying to reach Europe since January, many of them Syrians who fled their country's four-and-a-half year conflict.

His comments also come just days after heartbreaking images emerged of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi whose lifeless body was found washed up on a Turkish beach after drowning in the Mediterranean.

Sawiris said in a television interview that he would approach the governments of Greece and Italy about his plan.

Asked whether he believed it could work, he said: 'Of course it's feasible.'

'You have dozens of islands which are deserted and could accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees.'

Sawiris said an island off Greece or Italy could cost between $10million and $100million, but added the 'main thing is investment in infrastructure'.

There would be 'temporary shelters to house the people, then you start employing the people to build housing, schools, universities, hospitals.

'And if things improve, whoever wants to go back (to their homeland) goes back,' said Sawiris, whose family developed the popular El Gouna resort on Egypt's Red Sea coast.

He conceded such a plan could face challenges, including the likely difficulty of persuading Greece or Italy to sell an island and figuring out jurisdiction and customs regulations.

But those who took shelter would be treated as 'human beings,' he said. 'The way they are being treated now, they are being treated like cattle.'

Laid to rest: The bodies of Aylan, Galip and Rehan were laid to rest in a cemetery in Kobane, Syria today

Grief: Abdullah Kurdi weeps as he arrives in Kobane (left) with the coffins of his family who drowned

Sawiris is the chief executive of Orascom TMT, which operates mobile telephone networks in a number of Middle Eastern and African countries plus Korea as well as underwater communications networks.

He also owns an Egyptian television channel.

Today, the father of Aylan Kurdi, who drowned alongside his brother and mother, buried his family in Kobane, the Syrian city where they had fled ISIS to seek a new life in Europe.

Aylan, three, his brother Galip, five, and mother Rehan died when their dinghy capsized as they tried to reach the Greek island of Kos in the dead of night.

Rehan Kurdi, pictured holding her 3-year-old son Aylan, also died when the boat sank off the coast of Turkey

A policeman on a Turkish beach gently recovers the body of little Aylan, 3, who washed up on the beach

Crowds gathered in Kobane as the bodies of the two young refugee boys and their mother completed their final journey.

Mr Kurdi flew from the coast to Istanbul and then onto the Turkish city of Urfa.

Speaking to the Dogan news agency at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, he still appeared to be in shock.

'As a father who lost his children, I want nothing for myself from this world,' he said. 'All I want is that this tragedy in Syria immediately ends and peace again reigns.'