It was, according to all who saw it, an inspired performance by a talented contemporary dance company. Afterwards the star of the show, Hassan Rabeh, a long-haired, handsome young dancer and teacher, returned to the seventh-floor apartment he was staying in, went out on to the crumbling balcony and jumped to his death.

Rabeh had been a refugee twice over in his 25 years, displaced by war from his Palestinian homeland with his family as a child, and then pushed from his adopted home in Damascus.

For more than two years he had struggled to survive in exile in Beirut, sleeping where he could, making friends when he could, teaching and working with the Sima dance company, with whom he won the reality television show Arabs Got Talent in 2013. He had been among some 1.2 million refugees from the Syrian conflict living in Lebanon, one in five of the population.

His death last Tuesday has devastated friends and family who attribute Rabeh’s “disturbed” mental state to the despair and trauma he suffered as a refugee. While poignant videos of his work in contemporary dance have gone around the world on social media, the suicide has also drawn attention once again to the plight of the 4.5 million people forced to flee the war in Syria over the past five years. They still have no prospect of returning to a semblance of normal life.

Experts say despair is increasingly prevalent. A study by the United Nations Population Fund found that 41% of Syrian youths living in Lebanon have considered committing suicide, while 17% “thought a lot” about ending their lives and 24% had been “tempted” when feeling no other doors were open to them.

Like many young refugees, Rabeh had no official documentation and lived in fear of deportation. His best friend of seven years, a fellow graduate from Damascus’s Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts, broke down in tears as she told the Observer: “We are in deep sadness. Losing Hassan is a tragedy that we will be living with. Hassan was an extraordinary person, friend, brother and dancer and losing him is just devastating. We will never forget him,” she said, asking not to be named but that her comments be attributed to the whole Sima company.

“He couldn’t stand the humiliation of Beirut,” said his friend and blogger Mohammad al-Nayel. “I could tell that Beirut was chewing through his soul. Each time we spoke he struck me as always upset, uttering things that made no sense to me but did to him. I felt that he was trying to convey what he felt in words that couldn’t quite translate the immensity of his sadness and the injustice he felt.”

Mental health and increasing despair among those fleeing war are one of the major challenges facing the charities and agencies working with refugees in the five main host countries of Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.

Many in Lebanon struggle with difficult living conditions, and feelings of insecurity about the future, and often live in fear of prosecution without residency papers. Joblessness and debts have been putting a strain on the Lebanese state and led to Beirut suspending the UNHCR’s programme of registration of refugees in May. “The situation is not getting better,” UNHCR’s Lebanon representative, Mireille Girard, said last week. “Humanitarian assistance can cover a certain amount of needs for the most vulnerable, but we cannot pay the rent for everybody, the electricity cost for everyone, the water cost for everyone.”

A week before he died, Rabeh left a rambling message on his Facebook page that his friends interpret as his suicide note. He asked them for forgiveness and talked of despair over the governments of Israel and Syria, which he blamed for turning him into a refugee, and condemned Islamic State and the Lebanese interior ministry. “I do not belong to any sect or political party. I am a creation of my God,” he wrote.

• In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here.

