Timea Nagy (activist)
| Timea Nagy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1977 |
| Residence | Toronto, Ontario |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Citizenship | Canada |
| Occupation |
Abolitionist Public speaker |
| Organization | Walk With Me |
| Known for | Opposing human trafficking |
| Home town | Budapest, Hungary |
| Website | www |
Timea Nagy (born 1977) is a Hungarian Canadian who was trafficked from Hungary to Canada in 1998.
Timea Nagy is a Hungarian Canadian who was trafficked from Hungary to Canada for forced prostitution in 1998. She escaped after three and a half months. In 2009, she said that about nine years passed after her escape before she was able to "find a new reason to get up in the morning." She said that she still couldn't rid herself of the fear that her three captors would recapture her. In 2010, she said that her experience of sexual slavery continued to affect her "in every possible way you can think of... This the only way people know me now. This is all I talk about."
After her escape, Nagy began advocating on behalf of human trafficking victims. She said that she "started speaking out [because] it seemed like there was a huge need." In 2009, Nagy founded Walk With Me, a Toronto-based organization that gives aid to human trafficking survivors and partners with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in rescuing victims, some of whom are only 12 years old. In reference to this work, Nagy said, "We do what we can... we pick them up, take them to a safe place, feed them and try to help them." Nagy also began working at a Salvation Army women's shelter and travelling across Canada to raise awareness among police officers about human trafficking in Canada; the RCMP estimates that 1400 women and children are trafficked into Canada each year, 600 of whom are trafficked for sexual purposes. Nagy said that she finds it difficult emotionally to speak about her experiences of sexual slavery, "but until the public hears it from a victim, it's not real."
In 2009, The Salvation Army featured Nagy's story in an anti-human-trafficking campaign called "The Truth Isn't Sexy"; the campaign sought to raise awareness about "people who are sold on the street, who don't have a choice." That September, Nagy spoke at a Calgary workshop that had been convened as part of a larger human trafficking seminar for immigration and police officials a few days after the first time human trafficking charges were laid in Alberta; police alleged that two women from Fiji and one from Beijing had been tricked into sexual slavery in Canada through similar circumstances to those Nagy had experienced 11 years prior. At the workshop, Nagy said that "It could happen to anyone... All you have to do is answer a stupid ad. Or go with a guy who tells you that he loves you. They'll take you to another city and you have no way of coming back."
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Wikipedia