Abdelwahed

MEMORANDUM **

Mazen Ayoub Abdelwahed petitions this Court for review of the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals to deny his requests for asylum and withholding of deportation. We deny his petition.

I. BACKGROUND

Abdelwahed was born in Gaza in 1965. At that time, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control, but Abdelwahed is not an Egyptian citizen. In the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, but Abdelwahed is not an Israeli citizen. Abdelwahed moved with his family to Saudi Arabia, but they did not obtain Saudi citizenship.

Abdelwahed graduated from King Saud University in 1986. To work in Saudi Arabia, he needed a work card. He started to work for Bell Canada after graduation on his father’s work card, and, after his father died, he obtained his own work card. Bell Canada was in Saudi Arabia on a government project, and when the project concluded in 1989, the company left the country and Abdelwahed lost his job.

Another company, the International Information Trading Company (“International Information Trading”), then hired Abdelwahed. The employment was conditioned upon Abdelwahed’s successful transfer of his work card authorization from Bell…