
Beneath the gleaming facade of Dubai's iconic skyscrapers and luxurious penthouses, a stark reality unfolds for migrant workers like Hesham. His apartment building, a world away from the emirate's opulence, is marked by flickering lights, broken doors, and exposed pipes.
What was once a two-bedroom unit now houses ten men, with Hesham, a 44-year-old Egyptian salesman, occupying a modified closet just large enough for a mattress, for which he pays $270 a month.