Also in Play: Hidden in Plain Sight—Human Trafficking at the World Cup
July 8, 2026
The World Cup is underway, bringing with it a massive surge in economic activity across three host countries and sixteen host cities. As of Wednesday, July 8th, as the tournament moves to the quarterfinals, attendance has already exceeded 6 million people, more than doubling the previous 1994 record for attendance across the entire Cup. That influx of visitors means more hotel rooms booked and a concentrated demand for services; it is also increasing attention on human trafficking—the use of force, coercion, or fraud to recruit, transport, or harbor a person for labor and/or sex. As the World Cup has taken off, law enforcement officials in Miami, San Francisco, and Massachusetts have arrested individuals suspected of engaging in sex trafficking.
But experts are divided on whether or not major sporting events actually increase human trafficking or merely spotlight the issue. Some argue that the “massive influx of visitors” and demand for services “acts as a magnet for criminal networks.” But others push back, arguing that major sporting events like the World Cup do not conclusively increase trafficking—rather, they bring into view trafficking that otherwise goes hidden and unreported.
Either way, the World Cup is as good a time as any to strengthen efforts to prevent trafficking, penalize criminal networks engaged in trafficking, and support victims. Such efforts must be survivor-centered, collaborative, government-led, and cross-jurisdictional, and they must go far beyond awareness campaigns. But this World Cup presents unprecedented coordination challenges. Texas, for example, will host games in Dallas and Houston, and includes existing trafficking corridors between Mexico and the US, and to other US states; Boston, New York, and Philadelphia must work together to address threats across shared rail systems and interstate highways. As Udo John Ogbonnaya of ACAMS, a leading anti-money laundering certification organization, explains, “[c]ooperation 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.” Indeed, host countries and cities should take advantage of this moment to expand anti-trafficking coalitions involving federal, state, and local law enforcement, private sector partners, and non-governmental organizations.
Companies also have a crucial role to play. Financial institutions are key to identifying trafficking-related transactions. The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice flagging the increased threat of human trafficking during the 2026 World Cup and urging financial institutions to increase their vigilance, including by promptly reporting transactions that trigger red flags for money laundering.
The hospitality sector is also central to combatting sex and labor trafficking. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 75 percent of survivors reported coming into contact with hotels at some point during their trafficking experience. New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, called on hotels and other lodging facilities to meet their legal obligations to post trafficking information cards and hotline resources in visible locations. “Hotels,” she noted, “are often on the front lines of helping victims get the support they need.”
Most major hotel chains display trafficking victim resources in prominent places, but placards are just the tip of the iceberg. The hospitality industry’s focus on sex trafficking obscures the industry’s risk of labor trafficking. Increased tourism creates urgent demand for short-term labor in hospitality, transportation, construction, food service, and cleaning services. Urgent, short-term hiring, often conducted through labor brokers and involving workers with irregular visa statuses, facilitates forced labor. Indeed, Mexican authorities have reported a proliferation of online scams targeting job-seekers who are forced to pay advance fees for uniforms, visas, or training. Fees like these can often contribute to conditions of debt bondage, where workers are trapped in low-paying jobs trying to pay off an insurmountable debt.
A FIFA employment recruiter was even compelled to post on LinkedIn to warn applicants that scammers were running a fraudulent recruitment process using her name and photograph. The Canadian anti-money-laundering agency likewise issued a bulletin outlining the risks and indicators of trafficking for companies, especially those in sectors like hospitality, construction, cleaning, and security, where an increased surge in demand “may create opportunities for traffickers to exploit vulnerable individuals through deceptive, coercive, or exploitative recruitment and employment practices.”
But these risks, and the work to address them, cannot stop when the final whistle blows on July 19th. The trafficking risks the World Cup has brought into focus are systemic and global, and they will outlast the tournament by years. Tourism-related industries must do more to ensure its supply chains—however sprawling—are free of human trafficking and forced labor. Companies should review their purchasing and recruitment practices, map their supply chains for goods and labor, and form long-term partnerships with responsible suppliers and recruiters. The World Cup can provide some much-needed momentum for a range of industries, including the hospitality industry, to get more serious about the forced labor and human trafficking in their workforce and their supply chains.
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