When 21-year-old Timea Nagy arrived in Toronto to earn a living as a waitress, her passport was taken, she was kidnapped, controlled, and forced to work in the sex-trade industry. Now, 10 years later, she shares her harrowing ordeal in an attempt to save trafficked victims through education and awareness.
Human Trafficking in Canada
Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime around the world. This multibillion-dollar criminal industry involves the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and delivery of people for the purpose of slavery, sexual exportation and forced labour. According to the RCMP, 15,000 people are trafficked in and through Canada every year.
Timea’s Story
Born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, Timea and her older Brother, Zoltan, suffered through their parents turbulent marriage, which later resulted in divorce. Despite her challenging family circumstances, Timea excelled in school, toured as an accomplished soprano, created a successful TV show for the teenage market, and wrote, produced and hosted live-to-air shows, interviewing well-known Hungarian and American musicians.
But when Timea found herself in financial difficulty she responded to a local newspaper ad that read: “Looking for young girls. Jobs outside the country. English not necessary.” She was convinced she had found the solution to her problems.
“I met a woman whose job pitch was irresistible,” says Timea. “I could work in Canada as a domestic, nanny, waitress or nightclub dancer. In Hungary nightclub dancers are popular and the girls are fully clothed. My plane fare and accommodation would be paid. For $150 all my documents would be completed and I would be on a plane to a new life in two weeks. ‘It’s as simple as that,’ the woman said.”
When Timea stepped off the plane in Toronto, however, she was met by three burly men who she quickly learned were her “agents.” Two Hungarians and a Canadian snatched her passport and papers from her, then whisked her off to a hotel where she showered, changed and was taken directly to her job in West Toronto. “It was a whirlwind,” Timea recalls. “The men were angry and said I owed them money for my plane fare and completion of documents. ‘You owe us $3,500,’they barked.’”
Timea’s dream of working as a waitress in a disco and becoming a singer disintegrated as she looked around the small, smoky Toronto club her agents had taken her to. They handed her a stripper wardrobe; lingerie and platform shoes. She was told she must participate in so-called table dancing. “I was shocked. I felt sick and scared,” says the petite, Hungarian who could speak no English at the time. “My life would never be the same.”
During her three months as a stripper, Timea was raped by her agents, suffered mental abuse, was undernourished, forced to have sex with the club’s clients and was threatened with death on several occasions. “Every day the agents reminded me they had connections to organized crime figures who would seek revenge if I didn’t earn my keep,” says Timea.
“They controlled my every move,” she continues. “I could phone my family in Hungary, but my conversations were short and monitored by the Hungarian agents. I wasn’t permitted to leave the hotel alone. I was escorted to the club each day at noon and picked up at 6 a.m. the next morning. It was hotel club, club hotel.
“I really didn’t know what was going on, but knew I was threatened and in danger. I had no one to trust and was afraid the police wouldn’t believe my story. I planned my escape. In my very limited, broken English I asked the club’s DJ if I could hide at his place for a few days. He agreed. For the next week I filled a canvas tote bag with jeans, street shoes and a heavy sweater. I hid them in the locker of the Richmond Hill strip club I was working at until I could make my dash for freedom.
“I returned to Budapest weighing 84 pounds. I was immediately thrown in jail for possessing a fake passport. My nightmare continued as two detectives raped me over and over for eight hours. Two days later, I was released. During the following week I was harassed and threatened by the Hungarian police who wanted me to testify against my captors, and the mafia who threatened to kill me if I did.
“I scrambled to obtain a passport under a new name and returned to Canada as a visitor. I worked in a regular job as a waitress and after a year contacted the police. I became a witness against the agents who raped me. In 1998 there were no trafficking laws and they were charged with sexual assault. It took six years for the case to be heard in the courts. We lost.
For the past 10 years Timea has lived a quiet existence in Toronto. Now she is ready to turn her horrific experience into a message of hope.
Timea Now
Timea is developing an International Counselling Program for Human Trafficking Survivors. Her hope is to create a standardized system that can be easily implemented in existing counselling programs within major non-profit organizations across North America.
Her new book, Walk With Me, A Memoir of a Sex Slave Worker, is a full accounting of her story and her road to wholeness and is set to be released in the fall of 2009.
In addition to the projects mentioned above, Timea will be participating in The Salvation Army’s Weekend of Prayer for Victims of Sexual Trafficking in Toronto on September 25 and will bring awareness to this modern-day slavery at The Salvation Army’s Hope in the City Breakfast in Vancouver on December 3. Timea will also be giving an educational presentation during the Toronto International Sex Crime Seminar hosted by various Canadian police departments in October 2009.
The Salvation Army and Human Trafficking
Fighting the evil of sex-trade trafficking remains high on the agenda of the worldwide Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army works against trafficking through awareness and education, and by offering safe houses for victims. Professional and caring long-term rehabilitation gives hope to those who have been trapped into the dangerous life of sexual slavery, drug addiction and debt bondage.
For more information on The Salvation Army’s response to human trafficking, visit Salvationist.ca/trafficking.
September 17th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I thank God for your rescue, Timea. Your story is so identical to the ‘human trafficking’ documentary I viewed. May God bless you and SA as you reach out to those enslaved and abused in such horrifying ways.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Your story moved me to tears. God Bless you for sharing your story so openingly and bringing more awareness to this.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
i pray that you continue to heal with each day of life and that your story will continue to bring an end to this horrific tragedy in our world today. May God give you peace and strength.
October 27th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
You are a brave women. Thank you for the courage of sharing your ordeal with the world. You are admired for your strength. Wishing you Gods blessings and aboundant strength and success in the future.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
God Bless you and I,m so sorry for what you had to go through.May he give you the strength to carry on and help these victims !
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
The Salvation Army are angels sent straight from heaven. What a better place this is with you in the world. Thank you.
November 28th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I wish you would stop calling these women “workers”. They were raped. They were hostages. They were sexual abused for someone’s pleasure. Think of what that means: men becoming aroused to a woman forced to pretend she was enjoying herself, no matter how much she didn’t want to be there, or how much she was in pain, sick, afraid. This is true pervesion, to call this “work”.
November 29th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Hello Timea, I’m so sorry that you had to go through to this very difficult time. God is using your life for other young people who are struggled and they don’t know what to do. You are such a beautiful girl and i hope that the future will bring you a lots of blessings. God bless you abundantly in your new direction!
Nicole
December 7th, 2009 at 6:29 am
Hi Timea, I thank you for your courage and heart for all captives. I hope to learn more about your vision for an International Counselling Program, as this is also my dream.
I hope your book will be available in Australia.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Thank you for sharing your story. Do you or the Salvation Army have a facebook group that we could join to support the cause?
December 21st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
We sure do! Visit http://facebook.com/salvationarmy
January 15th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
thankfully police corruption here isn’t as bad as what decades of communist rule
brought to eastern europe.
hopefully interpol will get involved against those 2 rotten hungarian cops.as for those hungarian canadians who kidnapped her, they both need hefty prison sentences,seizure of all their property, cancellation of their citizenship and deportation.
here, kidnapping is considered to be the next worst thing to murder.
January 21st, 2010 at 2:41 am
Bless You, Timea for having the courage and strength to be strong and not be a victim. I spent the summer of 2009 in Moldova and researched human trafficking while there. I saw the pre-puberty victims of human trafficking begging for money. I can only imagine that the future is very bleak for these young girls and the images are so vivid and horrible in my mind. I am so proud of you for being a survivor and for bringing awareness of this crime so that others won’t endure what you had to. I learned while in Moldova that victims speaking out is very uncommon, for reasons that I won’t go into now, but I do understand. Needless to say I understand the barriers you’ve had to overcome that we in the western world don’t have to endure. We will all learn from the horrors that you had to endure. And for that I will be forever grateful, Timea. You are an inspiration. Don’t ever give up in your journey, wherever your path leads you.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
god bless you
February 24th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Timea…..you are in my thoughts and prayers. Praying that you and STEP together might do something more powerful than either of you can do alone.
If we can help out in any way, please let us know. Tara’s mom
February 25th, 2010 at 2:41 am
Your saga stands aa a true inspiration to all rape victims no matter what sex and what situation. I wish you the very best in your ongoing plans to establish Counselling Services for the victims of Human Trafficking. Bleesings Timea!
March 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Timea, you are an inspiration, you brought several tears. Your story is inspiring. As we all know unfortunateyl only a small percentage of the victims step out and decide to talk about it. and reach for help, you did. and thank God for it. Hopefully your story will reach out to other victims to get out of the darkness. Your initiative for the counselling service is wonderful. I would love to hear one of your speech, I live in Winnipeg, If you ever come I would love to know.
May 10th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Oh my… I’m grateful for being able to hear such a story. Thank you for finding the courage to tell it Timea. I never hear anything like this happening and a little shocking and not to mention disturbing to hear something like this goes on in Canada. Wow… just thinking about it as if I was in your shoes. Makes me wonder where some people get that kind of nerve. A group of people too, and then back home in Hungary, the detectives…I’m appauled by the amount of people you’ve ran into with such low moral standards. Thank you for deciding to speak out or write about your experiences.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Her nightmare—what’s the climate in Budapest, Hungary there? I thought the police was saying something about initiatives against human trafficking in Canada, did the law not change to accommodate that? Would she like to continue to fight for justice? Can anything be done about the crimes done against her back home?