Billionaire investor George Soros has repeatedly denied rumors that he is helping to finance the migrant caravans making their way up from Honduras and Guatemala through Mexico with the ultimate aim of reaching the US.
But that's about to change, as the "Open Society" founder - who famously financed much of the opposition to Trump SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh - is now partnering with Mastercard to hand out money (in the form of 'investment capital') to migrants, refugees and "others struggling within their communities worldwide," according to Reuters. Through their partnership, Soros is effectively providing open financial support for migrants and refugees seeking to enter the US and Europe.
The partnership between Soros and Mastercard, which they are calling Humanity Ventures, is the result of a pledge that Soros made in September to spend $500 million to address "the challenges facing migrants and refugees."
In a statement, Soros and Mastercard declared that government aid programs haven't been enough to solve the issues facing refugees, suggesting that this is a problem that only the private sector can solve.
"Migrants are often forced into lives of despair in their host communities because they cannot gain access to financial, healthcare and government services," Soros said.
"Our potential investment in this social enterprise, coupled with Mastercard’s ability to create products that serve vulnerable communities, can show how private capital can play a constructive role in solving social problems," he added.
Right away, Soros plans to spend $50 million to provide "scaleable" health-care and education solutions. He intends to 'invest' the money in businesses founded by migrants.
"Humanity Ventures is intended to be profitable so as to stimulate involvement from other businesspeople," Soros said."We also hope to establish standards of practice to ensure that investments are not exploitative of the vulnerable communities we intend to serve."
Soros has said that he would prefer 'Humanity Ventures' to be profitable to attract "other businesspeople", it's unclear how, exactly, he plans to earn anything approaching a reasonable rate of return by handing out risk free loans to migrants and refugees.
This comes after Master Card back in 2016 admitted that it has handed out prepaid debit cards to migrants and refugees traveling through Europe, something the company did with the explicit blessing of the European Union and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
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