Yassir v. Ashcroft

OPINION

BARRY, Circuit Judge.

By his own account, Salim Yassir was born in Gaza City in Palestine on January 1, 1976. At the age of ten, Yassir-accompanied by his uncle-relocated to a refugee camp in Libya. After his father and sister died in Gaza in the late 1980s, Yassir was joined in Libya by his mother in 1990. Yassir remained in Libya until 1999, when, with the help of his uncle, he made his way to Syria via Egypt. In Syria, he obtained a false passport which enabled him to travel to England. From England, Yassir stowed away on a ship bound for the United States, seeking, in his own words,…