DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Lights flicker, doors hang off their hinges and holes in the walls expose pipes in the apartment building where Hesham, an Egyptian migrant worker, lives in Dubai, an emirate better known for its flashy skyscrapers and penthouses.

His two-bedroom rental unit is carved up to house nine other men, and what he calls home is a modified closet just big enough for a mattress.

But now the government has ordered the 44-year-old salesman out of even that cramped space, which costs him $270 a month. He's one of the many low-paid foreign laborers caught up in a widespread crackdown by authorities in Dubai over illegal subletting.

That includes rooms lined with bunk beds that offer no privacy but are as cheap as a few dollars a night, as well as partitioned apartm

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