Human Trafficking During the World Cup

Friends:

The World Cup is here! 

Millions of people will be attending a World Cup match this year. Games will be spread out across the Americas: the USA, Mexico, and Canada are co-hosting and the number of teams qualifying for the first round of play expanded to 48 countries. 

Global events like the World Cup are well known as opportunities for human traffickers to operate, often unseen, in the background. Popular global sports activities have been statistically tied to a spike in human trafficking incidents.

A Thomson Reuters article summarized the heightened trafficking activity and risks of popular sporting events by using the 2026 Super Bowl in San Francisco as an example. Using sex ads as one measure of the increased frequency of trafficking surrounding huge sporting events like the Super Bowl (or World Cup), there was a significant uptick in ads in the timeframe around and during the Super Bowl—both nationally as well as in the Bay Area: 

With this year’s World Cup spread out across three nations and lasting longer than previous tournaments, the work we do at Gateway Alliance Against Human Trafficking is more important than ever. And our focus—education and prevention—is gaining renewed attention nationwide. 

Because anti-trafficking groups like ours across the country have invested in prevention, education, and training (GAHT’s core principles) attendees at World Cup matches are better equipped than ever before to spot the signs of trafficking and know what to do and how to intervene. 

There is also an exciting new smartphone app called Simply Report that allows users to submit a concern about potential criminal activity to law enforcement. The app is designed to filter and analyze submissions and parse the information to prioritize emergency situations and route concerns to the appropriate agency. 

Missouri has the fourth-highest incidence rate of human trafficking at 4.32 per 100,000 people, according to a 2023 report from the Missouri Statewide Council on Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children, citing data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Kansas City is one of the 13 U.S. cities selected to host matches during the tournament. 

That’s why we applaud the Missouri Attorney General’s decision to partner with the nonprofit that developed the Simply Report app to try and make reporting trafficking concerns both easier and more widespread during the World Cup.

At GAHT, we have expanded our public awareness work in advance of the World Cup tournament and have also been explicitly discussing this link between massive global sporting events and the surge in human trafficking. 

We hope you enjoy the World Cup! And stay safe out there!

Thank you for doing your part to spread awareness of human trafficking and stand up for survivors by investing in education and prevention. 

— Gateway Alliance Against Human Trafficking Team

Source: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/human-rights-crimes/world-cup-analyzing-human-trafficking-risk/