Human trafficking and the 2026 World Cup: Demanding a unified response

April 9, 2026

Major sporting events often embody a dual reality: They showcase human achievements while exposing weaknesses that enable human exploitation. The FIFA World Cup is the globe’s most watched sport and stimulates huge demand across travel and logistic sectors. It also produces services value chains and significant economic activity. These conditions create fertile ground for human trafficking networks. This article focuses on the FIFA World Cup 2026¹ taking place in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and highlights why deeper cooperation among the three host nations is essential.

Global bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council,² warn that such mega events trigger temporary market shocks that traffickers quickly exploit. The host nations must cooperate by requiring that their financial institutions (FIs) and law enforcement (LE) work together through real-time intelligence-sharing and enhanced monitoring. For instance, FIs and LE must intensify action in continuous training of their front-line staff to detect emerging threats and trafficking red flags. The LE of the host nations must unify in sharing updated typologies as they uncover new trends. Cooperation and unified response and cross-border action among the host countries is therefore not optional but critical to safeguarding workers, protecting vulnerable groups and ensuring that the tournament’s economic benefits are not overshadowed by human rights abuses.

A new level of cooperation

The 2026 World Cup tournament is unprecedented in various ways. For instance it is the first time three nations will be jointly hosting the event across 16 host cities—11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada—and millions of fans will be traveling across the cities. In addition, 48 teams are expected to participate in the event. This demands a coordinated response across national borders. The host nations must respond swiftly in disrupting trafficking networks by sharing information among themselves. In addition, the host nations must engage in sustained active participation in cross-border and public-private partnership information sharing initiatives as it will be essential to protecting vulnerable people during the tournament. If left unchecked, trafficking networks will be actively moving people across the host countries—particularly into liberal and sanctuary cities in the U.S.

The first Trump administration expressed concern regarding transnational criminal organizations and in 2017 signed “Executive Order 13767: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements.”³The U.S. sees shared borders as vulnerable to large scale migration, unaccompanied minors crossing dangerous terrain and potential entry points for terrorists. Since then, the second Trump administration has called for border enforcement actions and hemispheric cooperation requiring cooperation with Mexico and Canada.

To have a unified new level of cooperation, it is important to understand the diversity and legal frameworks among the three nations hosting the World Cup. Each host nation has their own set of laws, victim protection mechanisms and enforcement capacities. For instance, Interpol’s “Operation Liberterra”⁴ global operations show that trafficking networks span continents, and major events like the World Cup can provide cover for movement, recruitment and exploitation unless LE collaborates at scale. As the three host nations deepen joint operations, intelligence-sharing and cross-border enforcement, they are demonstrating collaboration ahead of 2026 World Cup. This level of cooperation is already becoming evident and resulted in the recent reduction in U.S. border crossings reported by CBS News.⁵

The role of FIFA and football institutions

FIFA and continental confederations occupy central governance roles as football (or soccer, as it is known in the U.S.) regulators and organizers of the most watched global sport events. Their managerial competence in football development bears social, economic and human rights consequences. A source from an Inside FIFA⁶ reportshows that FIFA has entrenched human rights standards into bidding processes, anti-discrimination and risk assessment. These principles are embedded across FIFA-organized competitions and member associations. In addition, Politico⁷ argues that FIFA is a powerful global regulator and commercial entity whose political influence extended beyond sports and expressed how the World Cup handed the Trump administration unexpected leverage in foreign policies.

On the other hand, an independent report from FairSquare⁸ argues that FIFA’s governance reform has delivered no improvement and is instead marred with persistent failures in due diligence, transparency and oversight. According to the report, these shortcomings have contributed to deep structural flaws with systematic human rights abuses linked to major tournaments, labor exploitation and poor officiating. AFC professionals cannot control match officiating. For instance, at the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations final in January between Morocco and Senegal, a match was abandoned for more than 10 minutes due to poor officiating. However, AFC professionals can protect their institutions by conducting independent event assessments and applying stronger due diligence, monitoring, reporting and intelligence-sharing controls than the event organizers themselves. These ensure that governance failures at FIFA do not become financial crime risks inside their FIs.

Overall, these sources portray football institutions as bodies with enormous potential that are limited by rooted weaknesses in governance. Therefore, strengthening transparency and self-accountability is essential for safeguarding human rights and public trust.

Conclusion

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is more than a sporting tournament; it is a test of global cooperation. Human trafficking is a transnational crime that spans all continents and thrives on protectionism and lack of data information-sharing among nations. By working together, the U.S., Canada and Mexico can set a new world standard for safeguarding major tournaments. The 2026 World Cup could become a reference point for cooperation in a fragmented world and a model for how to protect the most vulnerable on and off the pitch.

Ogbonnaya Udo John, CAMS, support worker, St Anne’s Community Services, Huddersfield, United Kingdom, ogbonnayaudojohn1000@gmail.com,