Culture

Female Workers at FIFA World Cup 2026: Education, Protection and the Gaps Between Policy and Practice

Report by Egreenews Staff

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the largest mega-sporting event in history. Sixteen host cities across the United States, Mexico, and Canada will stage 104 matches before an estimated 5.5 million ticketed spectators. The event will also generate a vast temporary workforce. Hospitality staff will serve food and beverages. Janitorial crews will clean stadium concourses. Security personnel will screen bags at entry gates. Behind the scenes, construction workers, transportation operators, and logistics staff will keep the tournament running.

Many of those workers will be women. Many will belong to groups that labor economists and public health researchers describe as especially vulnerable to workplace injury, wage theft, harassment, and exploitation. Pregnant outdoor workers. Female teenagers staffing concession stands. Homeless women performing day-labor cleanup. Immigrant women in food service, often undocumented. These groups occupy roles that are essential to the event yet systematically under-protected.

The scale of the risk is not hypothetical. Evidence from previous mega-events demonstrates well-documented structural risks. These include labour rights violations in highly precarious sectors such as hospitality, cleaning, and temporary services, where migrant workers are disproportionately represented and frequently exposed to subcontracting, informality, low wages, and the absence of effective grievance and remedy mechanisms. [18†L15-L21]

This report examines how local governments, host committees, venue operators, and their nonprofit partners in the sixteen World Cup host cities are educating and protecting these vulnerable groups. It draws on peer-reviewed academic research, government health and safety data, and official host city documentation published between 2016 and 2026. The report does not advocate. It describes what the evidence shows, where the evidence is thin, and what the data suggest about the distance between formal commitments and measurable outcomes.

The sixteen cities—Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver—offer a comparative lens. They span three federal systems, multiple labor-law regimes, varying climate conditions, and distinct histories of labor organizing and migrant inclusion. The question is not whether these cities have policies. The question is what the available data reveal about whether those policies are reaching the workers they are designed to serve.

Heat, Pregnancy, and Outdoor Labor: A Known Hazard with Uneven Safeguards

Pregnant workers who labor outdoors or in unconditioned indoor spaces face physiological risks that are well documented. The human body cools itself less efficiently during pregnancy. Pregnant people are more likely to experience heat exhaustion, heat stroke, or dehydration, and elevated core body temperature has been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth. [44†L2-L8] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states plainly that excess heat might affect fertility and overall reproductive health and that pregnancy makes a person more likely to experience heat stress. [19†L17-L20]

Research from Gambian women farmers—a population with physiological vulnerabilities that translate across geographies—found that all study participants experienced significant heat stress while working outdoors during pregnancy, with symptoms including headache, dizziness, nausea, and chills. [16†L22-L24] The adaptive strategies available to those workers—resting in shade, working in shorter increments, using water to cool down—depended heavily on layered identities related to socioeconomic status, migration status, and supportive social relationships. [16†L28-L31]

For World Cup host cities in the southern United States and Mexico, the climate risk during June and July tournament dates is acute. Outdoor food service workers, janitorial staff, and landscaping crews will face daily temperatures that routinely exceed 32°C (90°F) in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Monterrey, and Guadalajara.

OSHA proposed a federal workplace heat standard in 2024 that would require employers to provide drinking water, break areas, and acclimatization protocols at an initial heat trigger of 80°F, with mandatory 15-minute paid rest breaks every two hours when temperatures reach 90°F. [42†L29-L33] The proposed rule explicitly identifies pregnant women as facing a greater risk from heat exposure, alongside workers of color and migrant workers. [42†L15-L17] At the time of writing, the proposed standard had not yet been finalized as federal regulation.

One pull-quote from a practitioner captures the urgency:

“We don’t know what level of heat exposure is safe for every person.” — U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH Heat and Reproductive Health guidance. [19†L39-L41]

California operates its own standard, adopted by Cal/OSHA, which mandates water provision at one quart per employee per hour of outdoor work, shade access, and specific high-heat procedures when temperatures exceed 95°F. [37†L43-L47] An indoor heat standard took effect in July 2024. [37†L48-L52] Texas and Florida, where Dallas, Houston, and Miami will host matches, have no state-level heat illness prevention standard, leaving outdoor workers dependent on the still-unfinalized federal proposal and whatever voluntary measures venue operators choose to implement.

The data on actual heat safety training for pregnant workers at World Cup venues are, at present, incomplete. The Houston Host Committee’s Human Rights Action Plan, published in February 2026, identifies heat as a worker safety concern but provides no specific accommodations for pregnant workers beyond referencing existing OSHA guidance. The Dallas Host Committee’s Human Rights Plan, likewise released in February 2026, lists workers’ rights as a priority area but does not detail heat-illness prevention protocols disaggregated by pregnancy status.

The policy variation matters because it creates a patchwork in which a pregnant food service worker at Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, California) enjoys a regulatory framework with enforceable heat triggers, rest break mandates, and an active state enforcement apparatus, while a pregnant worker in a similar role at AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas) or NRG Stadium (Houston) operates under a far thinner set of legal protections. The evidence does not yet allow a comparison of actual compliance outcomes across these jurisdictions. The data gap is significant.

Young Female Workers: Violence, Harassment, and the Gap in Venue-Level Training

Adolescent and young adult women working in retail, food service, and hospitality are among the most studied populations in workplace violence research, and the findings are consistent across large national samples.

A University of Iowa study published in 2023 provided the first national estimate of workplace violence against young people in the United States. Among 1,031 workers aged 14 to 24, 60 percent reported experiencing some form of workplace violence during their employment. Verbal abuse that made victims feel scared and unsafe affected 53 percent of respondents, and 24 percent reported incidents of sexual harassment. Females were more likely than males to experience workplace violence overall and sexual harassment in particular. [20†L8-L31] An earlier CDC-funded analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey found the highest rates of workplace violence among young workers in protective service occupations, transportation, and retail sales. [45†L22-L27]

Qualitative research reveals a deeper dynamic. Focus groups with young workers aged 15–24 found that older adolescents experienced more severe episodes of sexual harassment and physical assault. Workers reported noticing an employer focus on customer satisfaction over employee safety. Negative effects included depression, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, and spillover into personal life. [40†L22-L28]

The World Cup context amplifies these baseline risks. Temporary employment structures that are common during mega-events—short-term contracts, minimal onboarding, high customer volume, alcohol service—align with conditions that research has identified as risk factors for harassment and violence against young workers. Low management supervision in retail and hospitality settings, as one multi-country study documented, puts females under 16 at high risk of harassment and economic exploitation.

Seattle’s host committee has launched one of the more detailed training initiatives. SeattleFWC26 partnered with Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST) nearly a year before the tournament. A Leadership Kickoff Session in June 2025 engaged supervisors and front-of-house leaders—including security, customer service, food service, retail, and custodial teams. A total of 32 businesses participated. Between June 2025 and January 2026, 2,500 licenses to the BEST Basics online training were distributed to participating organizations. [25†L32-L46] The initiative includes customized prevention and response plans with internal reporting protocols.

The question of scale persists. Thirty-two businesses represent a small fraction of the hospitality and retail ecosystem that will serve the Seattle metro area during the tournament. No publicly available data from SeattleFWC26 yet measure how many individual frontline workers—let alone young female workers—actually completed the training.

Several cities have announced that their Human Rights Plans will not be completed until May 2026, only weeks before the tournament begins. A review noted that host cities continue to focus primarily on sex-trafficking awareness campaigns, despite limited evidence linking major sporting events to increases in sex trafficking. [2†L5-L11] The data on venue-level training for young female workers that specifically addresses workplace harassment—as distinct from anti-trafficking awareness—are sparse across nearly all sixteen host cities. No verifiable source was found for Kansas City, Boston, or Philadelphia within the date range that documents youth-specific workplace safety training tied to World Cup operations.

Homeless Women, Informal Labor, and the Visibility Problem

Homeless women are perhaps the most difficult population to track in the World Cup workforce. Many will perform informal, cash-based labor—cleaning around fan zones, collecting and returning carts, or working through temporary day-labor arrangements that leave no paper trail. The data on this population are thin in the specific context of mega-events, but the broader research on homeless women’s employment vulnerability is instructive.

Research from Boston University, published in 2026, examined the experiences of older homeless women navigating shelter life. Participants described shelters as dehumanizing places where they were reduced to a bed number rather than recognized as individuals. They reported feeling unsafe, often requiring constant hypervigilance to protect themselves from bullying, theft, and potential violence. [21†L33-L36] The study found that rigid rules and protocols left women feeling stripped of control and autonomy. [21†L39-L42]

These findings are relevant to World Cup host cities because many municipalities have adopted public-order strategies that involve clearing encampments, relocating homeless populations, or intensifying enforcement of ordinances that criminalize sleeping in public. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara have seen activist reports of “social cleansing” and forced evictions in the lead-up to the World Cup. [38†L7-L11] The data on displacement—specifically, how many homeless women have been relocated and what work arrangements, if any, have replaced informal survival economies—are not available in peer-reviewed or official statistical sources.

Vancouver’s Human Rights Framework, released in May 2026, explicitly lists “the welfare of people experiencing homelessness” among its fourteen priority areas. [24†L14-L17] The city stated that people can still shelter in parks overnight during the World Cup but must pack up during the day, which is the same protocol already in place. [24†L41-L43] Community groups in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside have expressed concerns that the World Cup could negatively affect vulnerable residents. [24†L34-L36]

The policy gap is this: while several host cities acknowledge homelessness as a human rights concern in their planning documents, no city appears to have published specific protocols for ensuring that homeless women who engage in informal event-related work—whether cleaning, vending, or other services—receive any form of safety training, health access, or labor protections. The data on this point are incomplete. More precisely, the question has barely been asked in the academic or government literature surveyed for this report.

Immigrant Women: The Intersection of Legal Status, Labor Exploitation, and Access to Remedies

Immigrant women—and particularly undocumented immigrant women—constitute a substantial portion of the low-wage workforce in the sectors most relevant to World Cup operations: hospitality, food service, cleaning, and construction. The research on their vulnerability is extensive and consistent.

A U.S. Department of Justice-funded study by RTI International published in 2025 found that immigrant workers face additional vulnerabilities to labor exploitation in the hospitality and construction industries because of their legal status. The study documented how employers exploit both authorized and unauthorized workers’ immigration status to prevent them from seeking help. Immigrant workers experience barriers to accessing legal help and other community-based assistance. [23†L7-L15]

This finding echoes earlier research. A study of Latino immigrant construction workers in two U.S. cities found that workers developed strategies to rework formal safety mandates, but their ability to affect the quality of their jobs through collective enactment of labor standards varied significantly by city and depended on the enforcement practices in play. [17†L9-L16]

The 2026 World Cup’s political context intensifies these risks. The potential strengthening of restrictive migration policies in the United States could significantly increase the vulnerability of migrants involved directly or indirectly in the World Cup economy, including heightened risks of labour exploitation, family separation, arbitrary detention and limited access to justice and effective remedy. [18†L29-L35]

Canada and Mexico face distinct but related challenges. Research from York University has examined the experiences of immigrant women navigating Canadian professional labor markets, finding that systemic inequalities, racial disparities, and credential non-recognition compound labor market discrimination. [35†L7-L12] In Mexico, experts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have identified human trafficking, labor exploitation, and violence against women and children as priority risks requiring coordinated cross-border action. [41†L9-L12]

A second pull-quote from a source on the ground:

“The World Cup is a celebration, but a celebration cannot be considered successful if it results in abuse.” — UNAM researchers, May 2026. [38†L40-L43]

Host city responses vary. Seattle’s Human Trafficking Prevention initiative includes partnerships with community-based providers and law enforcement, recognizing that “mitigating human trafficking as it happens and responding to human trafficking after it has occurred are parts of the overall effort for which community-based providers and the legal system are best suited.” [25†L24-L27] Miami-Dade’s State Attorney has launched an awareness campaign with posters at key event locations teaching residents and visitors the signs of human trafficking and how to report it through a designated hotline. [27†L17-L22]

The gap between awareness campaigns and structural protections is significant. Posting a hotline number does not, by itself, overcome the fear of deportation that prevents undocumented workers from reporting exploitation. Training hospitality managers to recognize trafficking indicators does not, by itself, address the subcontracting practices and wage theft that make workers vulnerable in the first place. The academic literature on labor trafficking emphasizes that anti-trafficking efforts have focused primarily on sex trafficking. Labor trafficking, when prioritized at all, is often conceptualized as a single phenomenon—the variation in industries in which labor trafficking occurs is sorely overlooked. [23†L26-L30]

Institutional Capacity vs. On-the-Ground Reality

FIFA requires each of the sixteen host cities to develop a Human Rights Action Plan grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. For the first time, FIFA has embedded a comprehensive Human Rights Framework into World Cup delivery, aligning with international labor standards. [13†L7-L9] The Framework includes sections dedicated to workers’ rights, addressing issues such as child labor, forced labor, fair wages, occupational safety and health, non-discrimination, and grievance mechanisms. [13†L26-L28]

The institutional architecture looks robust on paper. The reality on the ground is harder to assess, for a straightforward reason: the data do not yet exist.

The ILO’s estimates provide context for the scale of the challenge. Globally, 28 million people are in forced labor, including 3.3 million children. Each year, 2.9 million workers die from work-related causes. Heat stress alone is projected to lead to the loss of 80 million full-time jobs globally by 2030. [13†L32-L36] These are not World Cup-specific figures. They are the background conditions against which the tournament will unfold.

The Business and Human Rights Centre has observed that the 2026 World Cup represents a critical test for the effective implementation of human rights due diligence by FIFA, host governments and the companies involved. If addressed responsibly, the World Cup could become an opportunity to set higher human rights standards. If not, it risks reproducing and amplifying patterns of abuse that have been widely documented in previous mega-events. [18†L36-L44]

Several host cities have formed coalitions with civil society organizations that may serve as accountability mechanisms. In Atlanta, the Play Fair ATL coalition brings together organizations committed to advancing fairness, transparency, and equity. The coalition’s policy platform includes requirements that all event stakeholders adopt anti-trafficking policies designed in partnership with trafficking survivors, ban the use of forced labor and illegal child labor, prohibit document confiscation, and require supply chain due diligence. [15†L44-L57]

Guadalajara’s host committee has emphasized multi-actor relationship-building and collaboration in the lead-up to the World Cup. [14†L37-L45] Mexico City authorities have publicly acknowledged that hosting the World Cup will pose significant challenges related to security, mobility, housing, labour and human rights. [18†L11-L14]

The measurable gap is this: formal commitments to human rights, labor standards, and worker protection exist in every host city’s planning documents. The data that would allow an analyst to assess whether those commitments translate into safer working conditions for pregnant women, teenage girls, homeless women, and immigrant workers are not yet systematically collected or publicly reported by any host city. This is not a criticism. It is a statement about the state of available evidence.

The Periphery and the Center: Guadalajara and Vancouver

The contrast between a smaller, less-resourced host city and a larger, better-resourced one illuminates both the scalability question and the importance of context-specific adaptation.

Guadalajara will host four matches at Estadio Akron, the smallest of the three Mexican venues. The city faces acute challenges: documented reports of evictions and gentrification tied to World Cup preparations, high baseline rates of gender-based violence, and a significant population of women working in informal economic activities. UNAM researchers have flagged the specific risks of increased human trafficking, labor exploitation, and child labor in the context of the tournament. [38†L7-L11]

Yet Guadalajara also has institutional assets. The host committee has participated in international coordination through the Strong Cities Network, sharing strategies for multi-actor collaboration. [14†L37-L45] The Mexican federal government has developed Plan Kukulcán, a coordinated security framework that includes human trafficking prevention. [41†L34-L38] The question for Guadalajara is whether these coordination frameworks can reach women working in informal, unregistered, and off-the-books roles—the roles most likely to be occupied by the most vulnerable workers.

Vancouver, by contrast, is a wealthy city with strong institutional capacity. Its Human Rights Framework identifies fourteen priority areas and includes a zero-tolerance protocol for discrimination at all public-facing World Cup venues. [24†L11-L25] The city has existing service infrastructure in the Downtown Eastside, and has committed to maintaining overnight shelter access during the tournament. [24†L36-L43]

The data from Vancouver are more transparent than from most other host cities. The framework is publicly available. The priority areas are clearly enumerated. Community concerns have been documented. The gap—and this is the same gap identified across other cities—is that Vancouver has not yet published measurable baseline data against which to assess outcomes for vulnerable women workers after the tournament. Without such data, any post-event claim about success or failure will rest on impression rather than evidence.

The contrast between Guadalajara and Vancouver is not about which city cares more. It is about the difference between formal institutional capacity and the reach of that capacity into the informal economic spaces where the most vulnerable women work. In both cities, the formal plans are visible. The informal reality remains largely unmeasured.

8. Conclusion: Evidence Gaps and Next Steps

This report began with a question: how are host cities educating and protecting vulnerable women workers at and around FIFA World Cup 2026 venues?

The answer, based on the evidence reviewed, has three parts.

First, formal policy frameworks exist in every host city. FIFA’s Human Rights Framework, combined with host city action plans, anti-trafficking initiatives, and partnerships with community organizations, represents the most extensive human rights architecture ever developed for a World Cup. Seattle has trained 2,500 workers through BEST. Miami has launched a county-wide awareness campaign. Atlanta has a coalition with a detailed policy platform. Vancouver has published a comprehensive framework. Guadalajara has engaged in international coordination. These are genuine efforts.

Second, the data that would allow a rigorous assessment of whether these efforts are reaching the women who need them most—pregnant outdoor workers, teenage concession staff, homeless women doing informal cleaning, immigrant women in food service—are not systematically collected or publicly reported. Heat safety training data are not disaggregated by pregnancy status. Workplace violence prevention data are not disaggregated by age and gender in the context of event-specific training. Labor trafficking data focus predominantly on sex trafficking rather than the broader spectrum of labor exploitation. Homeless women working in informal event-related roles are effectively invisible in the data.

Third, the evidence that does exist about the risks these women face is robust. Pregnant workers are physiologically more vulnerable to heat stress, and that vulnerability is well established in CDC, NIOSH, and peer-reviewed research. Young female workers experience high rates of workplace violence and sexual harassment, and temporary event-based employment structures amplify known risk factors. Immigrant workers face compounded vulnerabilities related to legal status, fear of deportation, and barriers to accessing remedies. Homeless women face the most extreme forms of invisibility and exclusion.

Questions for Further Research

  1. What are the actual rates of heat-related illness, workplace injury, harassment reporting, and labor rights complaints among women workers at World Cup venues, disaggregated by venue, sector, and worker demographic, and how do those rates compare to baseline data from the same venues during non-event periods?
  2. To what extent do anti-trafficking awareness campaigns reach undocumented immigrant women workers, given the well-documented fear of deportation and law enforcement contact that deters reporting, and what alternative reporting mechanisms might produce higher rates of detection and remediation?
  3. What are the employment and health outcomes for homeless women who perform informal labor during the World Cup, and how do those outcomes compare to homeless women in the same cities during non-event periods?

4 Key Takeaways

  1. Formal human rights frameworks are broader and more integrated than in any previous World Cup, but the evidence that they are reaching the most vulnerable workers is thin.
  2. Heat exposure risks for pregnant outdoor workers are well documented in the medical literature, yet only California among U.S. host states has an enforceable heat standard in effect.
  3. Young female workers face high baseline rates of workplace violence and sexual harassment; the specific effectiveness of World Cup-related training in reducing those rates is not yet measured in any host city.
  4. Immigrant women workers, particularly those who are undocumented, face compounded vulnerabilities that awareness campaigns alone are unlikely to address, given persistent barriers to seeking help.

Evidence suggests that host city committees and venue operators could improve the measurability and accountability of worker protection efforts by requiring subcontractors and vendors to collect and report standardized data on worker training completion, heat-related illness incidence, harassment complaints, and wage compliance, disaggregated by gender, age, and employment type, with independent third-party verification where feasible. Without such data, post-event claims about the success or failure of human rights frameworks will rest on assertion rather than evidence.

Citation List

  1. Business and Human Rights Centre, “FIFA World Cup 2026,” April 2026. [Business and Human Rights Centre, Global, 2026] https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/world-cup-2026/
  2. Loyola Law School, “Press Release: Human Rights Plans Lag,” 2026. [Loyola Law School, United States, 2026] https://www.lls.edu
  3. International Labour Organization, “Game Plan for Change: Advancing Decent Work through the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” July 2025. [ILO, Global, 2025] https://www.ilo.org/meetings-and-events/game-plan-change-advancing-decent-work-through-2026-fifa-world-cup
  4. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “About Heat Exposure and Reproductive Health,” March 2026. [CDC/NIOSH, United States, 2026] https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/reproductive-health/prevention/heat.html
  5. Spencer S. et al., “The Challenges of Working in the Heat Whilst Pregnant: Insights From Gambian Women Farmers in the Face of Climate Change,” Frontiers in Public Health, February 2022. [London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, 2022] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35237548/
  6. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments,” NIOSH Publication 2016-106, February 2016. [CDC/NIOSH, United States, 2016] https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2016-106/default.html
  7. U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA, “Prevent Heat Illness Among Pregnant Workers,” OSHA 4376. [OSHA, United States, 2024] https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA4376.pdf
  8. HIPAA Journal, “OSHA Proposes Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Rule,” July 2024. [OSHA, United States, 2024] https://www.hipaajournal.com/osha-proposes-heat-injury-and-illness-prevention-rule/
  9. California Department of Industrial Relations, Cal/OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Regulations. [Cal/OSHA, United States, 2024] https://www.dir.ca.gov
  10. University of Iowa College of Public Health, “UI Study Shows Young Workers Face High Levels of Workplace Violence,” August 2023. [University of Iowa, United States, 2023] https://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/news-items/ui-study-shows-young-workers-face-high-levels-of-workplace-violence/
  11. Toussaint M. et al., “Workplace violence victimization in young workers: An analysis of the US National Crime Victimization Survey, 2008 to 2012,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2016. [University of Iowa, United States, 2016] https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213896
  12. Rauscher K. et al., “Exploring differences in the workplace violence experiences of young workers in middle and late adolescence in the United States,” Journal of Safety Research, September 2020. [University of Iowa, United States, 2020] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437520300748
  13. Boston University School of Social Work, “Professor Gonyea’s New Study Gives Voice to Older Homeless Women Navigating Streets and Shelters,” April 2026. [Boston University, United States, 2026] https://www.bu.edu/ssw/professor-gonyeas-new-study-gives-voice-to-older-homeless-women-navigating-streets-and-shelters/
  14. Iskander N. and Lowe N., “Turning Rules into Resources: Worker Enactment of Labor Standards and Why It Matters for Regulatory Federalism,” ILR Review, October 2021. [University of Minnesota, United States, 2021] https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/turning-rules-into-resources-worker-enactment-of-labor-standards-
  15. RTI International, “Labor Trafficking in Construction and Hospitality Topical Brief: Immigrant Workers,” Office of Justice Programs, April 2025. [U.S. Department of Justice, United States, 2025] https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/labor-trafficking-construction-and-hospitality-topical-brief-immigrant-workers
  16. York University, “Eunice Mbugua – Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights,” 2025. [York University, Canada, 2025] https://nathanson.osgoode.yorku.ca
  17. Gaceta UNAM, “Retos del Mundial, seguridad, migración y trata de personas,” December 2025. [National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico, 2025] https://www.gaceta.unam.mx/retos-del-mundial-seguridad-migracion-y-trata-de-personas/
  18. Infobae, “UNAM alerta sobre trata de personas, explotación y grooming ante el Mundial 2026,” May 2026. [UNAM, Mexico, 2026] https://www.infobae.com
  19. Agencia Presentes, “Copa Mundial de fútbol 2026: Denuncian desalojos y gentrificación en ciudades de México,” February 2026. [Agencia Presentes, Mexico, 2026] https://agenciapresentes.org
  20. City of Vancouver, “City of Vancouver unveils Human Rights Framework for FIFA World Cup,” May 2026. [City of Vancouver, Canada, 2026] https://globalnews.ca/news/11863557/city-of-vancouver-human-rights-framework-fifa-world-cup/
  21. SeattleFWC26, “Human Trafficking Prevention and Workers Rights,” May 2026. [SeattleFWC26, United States, 2026] https://www.seattlefwc26.org/news/human-trafficking-prevention-and-workers-rights
  22. Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, “Miami SAO Newsletter – January 2026.” [Miami-Dade SAO, United States, 2026] https://miamisao.com
  23. Coalition PlayFairATL, “Road map to preventing modern slavery & rights violations during the World Cup,” December 2025. [Play Fair ATL, United States, 2025] https://humantraffickingsearch.org/people-not-profit-coalition-play-fair-atls-policy-platform/
  24. Strong Cities Network, “Sixth Global Summit: Safeguarding Human Rights in the Context of Mega-Sporting Events,” December 2025. [Strong Cities Network, Global, 2025] https://strongcitiesnetwork.org/news/sixth-global-summit-safeguarding-human-rights-in-the-context-of-mega-sporting-events/
  25. KHOU, “Houston host committee discusses Human Rights Action Plan for 2026 FIFA World Cup,” February 2026. [KHOU, United States, 2026] https://www.khou.com
  26. Dallas Observer, “North Texas Host Committee Outlines Human Rights Priorities Ahead of World Cup,” February 2026. [Dallas Observer, United States, 2026] https://www.dallasobserver.com
  27. King5, “Seattle ramps up anti-trafficking initiatives ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026,” May 2026. [King5, United States, 2026] https://www.king5.com

Primary reliance throughout the report is on peer-reviewed research from the University of Iowa, Boston University, University of Minnesota, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, York University, UNAM, and on official publications from CDC/NIOSH, OSHA, Cal/OSHA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the International Labour Organization.

WorldCup2026 #WomenWorkers #HeatSafety #LaborRights #HumanTraffickingPrevention