Cici Brinces came to Lebanon as a domestic worker 14 years ago, married a Palestinian, had a son, survived leukaemia and was building a new life. Then and now she wants to go home to the Philippines.

“I feel that the end is near for me – worse than when I had cancer,” said Brinces, 46, who fled her home near the airport two weeks ago and lived on the streets for days before moving into a shelter with her 10-year-old son.

Nazmul Shahin, who works at a supermarket in Beirut’s Achrafieh neighbourhood, says explosions jolt him awake at night.

“My heart begins pounding – and it feels like something is gnawing at my entrails,” the 30-year-old Bangladeshi citizen, who has been living in Lebanon for about a year, told Context in a phone interview from Beirut.

Md Al Mamun loves the job he got at a Beirut bakery three months ago, but now he too wants to go home to Bangladesh.

“I really like it here – the pay and the environment are so much better – but since the bombing began, I have been badly missing home,” he said.

A nearly year-long conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group has , with Israel bombing southern Lebanon,...