Image via WikipediaBy Emily Rivas | Published 11/16/2010 | City/Region News | Rating:  | |
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| Emily Rivas  Emily Rivas is a freelance writer for the Brampton News. She is a 12th grade student at St. Marguerite d'Youville Seconday School.View all articles by Emily Rivas Brampton - On Tuesday, October 19th, 2010, the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Brampton (BPW) had guest speaker Timea Eva Nagy join them at Portobello Ristorante in Brampton to inform the club about the human trafficking currently occurring right in the heart of the cities in the GTA. BPW works as a support group for women in the Brampton community. Trying to achieve equality for women in society, President Barbara Hore, along with 44 other members, hold events where guest speakers come to advocate on behalf of the club. At this event, Timea Nagy joined them to share her tragic story. Timea thought she was coming to Canada as a domestic worker, but this young girl soon found out that she was being brought to work as a sex slave. Canada is the second largest country known for trafficking, The Region of Peel being the most popular area. Her story began in Budapest, Hungary, where Timea Nagy grew up with her brother and sister. Being the daughter of a police woman, she grew up naive and sheltered. Her mother always enforced strict rules and curfews upon her children, keeping them from harm. By nineteen, Nagy had worked at a television station where she produced and hosted her own live-to-air shows. Unfortunately, she soon found herself in debt with a TV production studio, thus forcing her to search for a solution to her financial problem. While looking through the newspaper, she found an advertisement for a foreign job which required no knowledge of English and offered $2,000 to $5,000 a month. Seeing the opportunity to eliminate some of her debt, she contacted the contractor where she was told that she could come to Canada as a domestic worker. On April 18, 1998, Nagy arrived at the Pearson International Airport where she was detained and interrogated by Immigration. Soon after, she was met by three men who explained that the reason she was held up at the Immigration center was because she insisted that she was there as a domestic worker when her contract stated that she had come as an exotic dancer. The men indicated that her run-in with Immigration would cost her $35,000. She was then escorted off to a local motel. This was the beginning of a dreadful life as a sex slave. Nagy’s first placement was at a strip club where one of the men was the owner. There she was sexually assaulted as part of her “initiation” and handed clothing suitable to adult performances. She continued to work in the adult entertainment industry in order to pay off her debt of $35,000. After she assumed that the debt was paid off, she made her way back to Hungary. Soon after her arrival, the previous contractor from the newspaper advertisement made contact with her and coerced her into making her way back to Canada. Nagy’s assumption was wrong, for she still owed money. Nagy then arrived at a motel back in Canada to find a plethora of Eastern European girls all there for the same reason as she was. They were told that they were not able to go to the police, they were not able to leave, nor talk to anyone due to the secrecy behind these men’s work. Being late or sick would only increase the amount of what they owed. The employers threatened that if any girl attempted to escape, they would beat them to death with a blood stained baseball bat. This threat was recited to them every day. “Our lives consisted of working at the club, staying at the motel, and leaving to the club again,” Nagy described. “We only slept 3 to 4 hours.” These men’s rules were strict and dangerous. Even buying food with the money earned would award a one way ticket to a baseball bat beating. This lifestyle was now something Nagy was used to, but nonetheless, she found something extremely wrong with it. At this point, she was making $400 to $500 a day. Nagy had gained a placement at Fantasia, a strip club located on Yonge St., Toronto, with reputably dangerous employees and customers. The only good part about this placement was that her employers never came in. While trying to pay off the money she owed, Timea would make money for herself at the club secretly. Her cover was soon blown: she had picked up her roommate’s phone which left her in a bad position with her employers. Prior to this event, they had been keeping a close eye on Nagy under the suspicion that she was working for her own benefit. On August 18, 1998, Nagy was able to escape and make it back to the Hungarian airport where she arrived under poor physical conditions and was interrogated for 8 hours. The police did not comprehend her story and believed her to be mentally unstable. Two days later, the police decided to continue interrogation, but instead sexually assaulted her. Timea was in grave danger, and in order to testify against her employers, the men were brought to Hungary. Hungary was not as she remembered. She was not able to identify with herself anymore and had lost connection with those around her. The threats from the contractor and employers continued, but this time at the risk of her family. Life seemed unbearable, therefore she decided to get a passport last minute and go back to Canada where she thought it would be safer. In March of 1999, Timea gave the statement against her employers. While in Canada, she continued to work in the adult entertainment industry, along with two other jobs. There was no assistance nor shelters, only the support of her sister who had come without a proper passport. In March of 2004 after 6 long years of legal proceedings, one of her previous employers was charged, yet the other two were found not guilty. Nagy was granted Canadian Residency in February of 2005 by the Canadian government. Her life was now established in a country which she would now call home. “The first time in Canada was not a true visit.” she explained. Nagy started speaking with police officers about the issue of trafficking and now works with trafficking victims and as a public speaker. She has written a book based on her experiences called Memoirs of a Sex Slave Survivor and has established the organization Walk With Me which has been active since 2009. Timea.E.Nagy has also been presented with the National Hero Award by MP leader Joy Smith. Human trafficking, known as “the Ghost Crime”, brings in a total of 32 billion dollars per year. It is the fastest growing crime in today’s society. Those caught for trafficking spend less time in jail than those caught for possession or distribution of drugs or weapons. Brampton and the Region of Peel area are in fact the worst regions guilty of this crime. Commercial trafficking is currently 85%, restaurants is 5%, migrant farming is 2%, domestic servitude is currently 3%, and other types of trafficking fall under the 5% of the total trafficking occurring in the GTA. Human trafficking has gotten so serious up to the point where girls are currently being sold on the internet on Craig’s List. Although this Ghost Crime is growing rapidly, there are ways society can stop it and prevent other cases from happening: 1.Tell someone. 2.Help and support organizations for this cause. 3.Raise awareness in your community by hosting something like an awareness event. 4.Call for change. Contact any MPPs, Federal politicians and get them to create a human traffic task force. An action that should be taken here is to shut down Craig’s list’s erotic section. 5.Take a stand and become an advocate. 6.If you are a female, talk to males about this issue. 7.Be aware of human trafficking in your community, at work, and when travelling. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Timea encouraged when asked what message she gives to those being trafficked in the GTA. “There is an escape and help out there. They need to trust the police.” Timea Nagy’s story is truly one of inspiration and hopefully one that will reach out and advocate to society on the subject of human trafficking. She has a strong desire to make a change and give a sense of hope to those undergoing trafficking. “If I could go back, I would not change anything because now, there is nothing in the world like rescuing another victim”. | |
Human Trafficking - Too Close To Home.
Source: Thee Bramton News
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