February 5 – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called out the current political situation in the United States, one of three co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, arguing that the ‘world won’t be welcome’ at the tournament.
“More than 90,000 people have been deported from the eleven World Cup host cities in the United States,” said Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “The world is not welcome at the World Cup. There is a visa ban in place for dozens of countries.”
Worden continued: “The United States committed to a human rights framework on the basis of hosting the World Cup back in 2018 and so far the evidence is that the Trump administration is not upholding this framework.”
Last December, HRW detailed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested at least 92,392 people in and around cities where World Cup games will be played, raising concerns about the safety of foreigners attending the tournament this summer.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch released their annual world report with scathing assessments of the Human Rights situations in several World Cup hosts countries, past and present, including the United States.
HRW wrote: “Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.”
Under Trump, the U.S. has also imposed travel bans, including on four countries – Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran and Haiti – that have qualified for the 48-team competition. In January, Trump’s administration also paused visa processing for immigrants from 75 countries. FIFA boss [Gianni] Infantino has repeatedly said that the world will be welcome in the United States. The world governing body has claimed that they got 500 million ticket requests for the tournament following their last sales phase.
Four years ago, Qatar hosted the first global finals in the Middle East, but the previous World Cup hosts were also found wanting in the reform of their labour market.
HRW detailed that “widespread abuse under the country’s restrictive kafala system” continues and said: “Although Qatar introduced labour reforms ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, such as allowing workers to change jobs and leave the country without employer permission, setting a minimum wage, and creating wage protection systems, these efforts have had limited impact. Weak enforcement, narrow scope, and continued employer control over workers have undermined the reforms.”
Following the 2022 World Cup and ignoring the recommendation of its own sub-committee for Human Rights and Social Responsibility, FIFA failed to establish a compensation fund for migrant workers and instead steered money from a $50 million legacy fund to the WHO, WTO and UNHCR. In the past, Infantino said that “migrant workers gain pride from hard work.”
HRW’s World Report suggests that such emotions might be in short supply for migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, who will build eleven new stadiums for the 2034 World Cup after FIFA fast tracked the hosting rights to the Arab Kingdom and ignored human rights concerns.
It read: “Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia face widespread labor abuses, some of which may amount to situations of forced labour, across employment sectors and geographic regions, and Saudi authorities are systematically failing to protect them from and remedy these abuses.”
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1771524077labto1771524077ofdlr1771524077owedi1771524077sni@i1771524077tnuk.1771524077ardni1771524077mas1771524077