Alongside the 60,000 UK citizens still in Israel and Gaza after the recent attacks, many economic migrant workers from Asia remain within the conflict zone.

Around 65,000 Asian workers, caregivers, and farmworkers from Thailand, Nepal, and the Philippines were among those killed and wounded.

Wanida Maarsa, a Thai citizen, described the anxiety of being unable to contact her husband since Friday 6th October. He had been working in Israel for the past two years. She later learnt that he had been taken hostage by Hamas. 

Wanida is not alone in her fears, as many of the family members of these workers await news about their loved ones.

Despite the ongoing conflict and air force planes ‘on standby to fly citizens home’, some Southeast Asian workers still refuse to leave...

Jeremiah Supan, a Filipino caregiver, protested the notion of returning home, worried that if he leaves, ‘all that assistance that I send to my family will be lost.’

Forced to choose between ‘unsafe conditions’ that ‘fail to meet international standards’ or to return home destitute, migrant workers face both the threat of terrorism and all-out war...