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The UK's asylum system is "more than broken", a Palestinian asylum seeker who arrived two years ago has said. Ibrahim Altaqatqa came to the UK on a tourist visa and then claimed asylum. During the time he has been waiting for his claim to be processed, he has met his partner, Yvonne, who is English, and five weeks ago, their daughter Alisha was born.

However, Ibrahim's claim remains unresolved, and he said he cannot return to his home near Hebron in the West Bank due to his political activism.

"The system is more than broken - it crossed that limit a long time ago," he said in an interview with Sky News.

"I can't just be stuck like this," he said, adding that he wants to move on with his life and be allowed to work. "I can't just waste day after day of my life waiting for somebody to say 'OK, we give you a decision'.

"I don't think you need two years to process any asylum claim. I don't think there's any case that's complicated to that level. I'm not single any more. I've got other responsibilities now."

Formerly a farmer in the Golan Heights - territory considered to be part of Syria under Israeli occupation by the UN - Ibrahim said he is familiar with the shifting public mood over immigration and shared frustration over the money being spent on asylum seekers.

"I don't think they are putting their anger toward the right group," he said. "On many occasions, I spoke with a lot of them - the people who were protesting by the hotel.

"I said 'if you are really angry and if you really want to save your country, I will be more than happy to come with you and let's go together to protest'."

Ibrahim said he stayed in three Home Office-funded asylum hotels and claimed that at one point, he got scabies. He added that at one point, the food and conditions were so bad that he left and slept on the streets.

This comes as a bombshell report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that the Home Office does not know how many asylum seekers have gone missing since entering the UK in 2020.

"We found several examples of data that could help the Government better understand outcomes within the asylum system that were not routinely being collected, or which they could not provide," the watchdog said in its report. "For example the Home Office did not hold complete data on the number who absconded from the asylum system".

The report also revealed that the asylum system cost the taxpayer an eyewatering £4.9 billion in 2024-25, primarily for providing taxpayer-funded migrant hotels and other accommodations. However, this figure does not include major expenditures, such as legal aid for asylum seekers' lawyers and the costs incurred by local councils when they assume responsibility for supporting successful claimants, meaning the true figure could be significantly higher.