Pessar and Mahler 2003, Kunz 2011. See, for example, the case of Morocco-ltaly (Salih 2001). The National Population Census 2011 shows that about 13 per cent of the absentee population is composed of women, almost 3 fold increase in absolute number since the 2001 census. Many of these violations are linked to the kafala (sponsorship) system, which requires workers to have a sponsor - usually the employer herself-who is responsible for their visa and legal status and hence ‘owns’the employee, since (s)he is not allowed to change workplace or employer.