Sri Lankans unsure about fleeing Beirut

Sri Lanka is advising its citizens trapped in Lebanon to stay where they are.

Labour minister, Athauda Senevirathne, says that most Sri Lankans in Lebanon want to remain in the country. About 90,000 Sri Lankans are in Lebanon, the largest contingent of foreign workers.

The BBC News website spoke to Sri Lankans in refuges around Beirut about their choices as Israel continues its military assault.

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Sister Leela is a Sri Lankan nun at a refuge run by the Christian charity, Caritas. She says that the domestic helpers she deals with are desperate to leave.

Hundreds of Sri Lankans have already left Lebanon

Everyone I meet wants to leave the country. This is what we are helping them do. There are many reasons.

Even before the war, the conditions that many of these women worked in were terrible.

I met a girl who was only 22 when she came to Lebanon. She came from a very rural area and her face had been disfigured by pinching and punching. She had been forced to sleep in a toilet for one-and-a-half years.

The bombing is an opportunity for many to get out of the country. We have many domestic helpers who have come here and want to leave.

Some of the housemaids are illiterate and come from very poor, rural areas. They have been traumatised by these events.

Many were being held in prisons for immigration offences - most of these have now been released. One of those girls told me that as she was being questioned by CID, the bombing started. She began to shiver and her throat dried up.

She couldn't speak until she was delivered to this refuge. Now she is on her way home. This is what the women I deal with want.

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Hemalatha is a domestic helper who was dropped at a refuge by her employers as the bombing started. She says she needs to stay to earn her living.

There are bombs now in Lebanon. It is very frightening. Now I am boarding at the shelter and I am on the list to be sent back to Sri Lanka.

I worked for two years for my employers and when the bombings first started we went to another house for safety. But when it continued day after day, they dropped me here and told me to return home.

My employer paid me for 10 months, even though I had worked there for two years.

I have been dumped here.

There is nothing to go back to, no work for me back home.

My husband is blind and I have to support my children. There is nothing to go back to, no work for me back home. Once I get back to Sri Lanka, I will immediately have to think of a way to get back.

I need the money, I need to build a house for my family. I have made no progress on that yet. My family at home are living in poverty.

The conditions were not that nice for me with my employers. I worked with another Filipina maid in the house. But it was unfair. I earned $100 a month, but she earned $200 a month - for exactly the same work. But I still want the work.

I don't know if there will be work to come back to. The place is deserted and all the houses are bombed.

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Lasantha is a migrant worker who was forced to leave his home after the bombing. He is unsure whether to leave Lebanon.

Thousands have been forced to seek shelter in refuges

In this country now, there is great sadness. Nobody knows where to go and what to do.

I worked in an office as a clerk, I photocopied and ran errands and did odd jobs.

There were a lot of bombs, which kept falling down. I had to come to this charity and seek help from people who gave us food, drink water and supplies.

We are in a safe place here and in good health. The embassy says it can send us back to Sri Lanka. But I don't know what to do yet.

There are still people who are not in too bad a situation. Some of them could stay. We are also getting a lot of help and we are helping lots of other people who want to leave.

But I don't know if I want to leave yet. Perhaps I will. We will see what happens.