FORMER Ford Models CEO Katie Ford arrived in the Philippines recently for two very special reasons: first, to judge the Ford Supermodel of the World-Philippines competition during the recently concluded Philippine Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2010; and second, and more important, to raise the Filipinos’ awareness on modern-day slavery, more popularly known as human trafficking.

According to current statistics, there are already a whopping 27 million people around the world who are considered slaves. Alarmingly, 60 percent of this number are women, while 50 percent are children, with ages ranging from as young as 14 to 24.  Almost always, the majority of these slaves can be found in India, around Southeast Asia, which includes the Philippines, and in many African nations.

Slaves are being forced to work on fields, in factories, brothels, homes, mines, restaurants and basically anywhere else, while slave owners continue to rake in profits despite their full knowledge that, in the process, they are forever destroying the lives of innocent people.  Disturbingly, on the average, the cost of a human slave now, whether you are in Europe, in the US or in Asia, is a measly $90.

Ford, the daughter of legendary Ford Models founders and husband-and-wife team Gerry and Eileen Ford, has traveled to many parts of the world, but it was only after she was invited to attend a woman’s leadership group by a United Nations representative that she learned that slavery still exists and was compelled to take decisive action.

“I’ve been actively supporting this cause for the last two years because it made me realize the seriousness of human trafficking and how easy it is for people to fall into this trap. From my own experience, I’ve already helped people get into the United States from over 60 countries with the purpose of finding them real careers. But far more frequently, when people travel abroad in search of a better life, they are duped by unscrupulous individuals, and that’s when their problems start. So, it’s really just a flip of a coin who ends up in a good job and who doesn’t. This is the reason why it is very important to have a legal broker who can protect these people’s interests, ensuring that they don’t end up being in a foreign country where they practically have no rights whatsoever,” said Ford.

 Katie soon became a roving ambassador for the UN, passionately engaging herself in the fight against human trafficking by increasing awareness on and support for the cause. In fact, during a previous Ford Supermodel of the World competition—worldwide modeling tilt that Ford Models holds annually—a number of models produced a TV commercial on the dangers of human trafficking and was filmed and recorded in eight different languages.

Through her latest Philippine visit, Katie hoped to raise the level of awareness and concern among Filipinos, and encourage them to learn more about the problem and what they can do to help stop such crimes against human rights.

“This is my third time to go here to the Philippines but the last time I was here was around 20 years ago. I have always wanted to go back. I personally know for a fact that the Philippine government is very concerned about this issue of human trafficking and they are making the effort to improve the situation, but honestly this is a huge global problem, and it’s really a matter of all of us getting our acts together, understanding the problem and facing it head-on. It’s not just the government’s responsibility. It’s everybody’s responsibility to work together to forever stop this atrocity against humankind,” she continued.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime recently came out with “A Global Report on Trafficking in Persons,” which indicates that the most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation (79 percent), where the victims are predominantly women and girls. What is even more surprising is that women make up the largest portion of traffickers. In fact, in some parts of the world, women trafficking women is actually the norm.

Besides this, most people who are trafficked are more often than not sold by someone they know at home or someone they just met abroad. Moreover, the most common methods used to entice the victims include agencies offering work, study, marriage or travel abroad. There are also bogus advertisements offering work or study abroad programs; and individual recruiters looking for males and females interested in working for bars, cafés, clubs and discos. Recruitment via informal networks of families and/or friends are also aplenty. And because of extreme poverty, some parents or guardians even sell their children for a small amount of cash.

Victims are then brought across borders by presentation of bona-fide documents that provide false or even fully legitimate visa entitlements to enter. Some are even smuggled in vehicles, containers, trains, ferries or on foot.

Human trafficking is a $32-billion business and the benefits go to criminals who sell people for one or several purposes, which include sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced labor, removal of organs or body parts, criminal activities, begging, exploitation in armies, and illegal adoption.

IN PHOTO -- BEYOND THE RUNWAY The daughter of legendary Ford Models founders and husband-and-wife team Gerry and Eileen Ford, Katie Ford flew in recently to raise the Filipinos’ awareness on modern-day slavery.