PARIS.- The NGO Amnesty International warned about the “serious risks” for the populations and fans during the World Cup 2026 football, especially in USAwhere he sees the “scenario of a Human Rights crisis.”
“In the term of the president donald trumpUnited States, where three quarters of the matches of the World Cupis the scene of a Human Rights crisis,” Amnesty stressed in a statement, which accompanies the report “Humanity must triumph” and which was made public this Monday.
This “crisis” is “marked by discriminatory immigration policies, mass detentions and arbitrary arrests by masked and armed agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), of Customs and Border Protection and other agencies,” Amnesty accuses.
“Despite the staggering number of arrests and expulsions, not even the FIFA “nor have the (US) authorities provided any guarantees to fans and local populations that they will be protected from ethnic and racial profiling, indiscriminate raids and illegal detention and expulsion,” said Steve Cockburn, director of Amnesty International’s Economic and Social Justice programme.
The 2026 Soccer World Cup, which will be held from June 11 to July 19 in USA, Canada and Mexicowill have a total of 104 games and 78 of them will be on US territory.
Countries like Iran -whose participation is in serious doubt due to the war situation-, Senegal either Ivory Coast They could see how the presence of their fans is prevented by the travel bans imposed by the Trump administration, which has made immigration policy one of the emblems of its second stage in the White House.
Other soccer fans are exposed to “intrusive surveillance” of their social networks for a “search for anti-American content,” estimates the NGO.
“Urgent action required”
Furthermore, “members of LGBTQI+ groups in the United Kingdom and in Europe have declared that it was dangerous for their presence to be visible during the tournament,” says this Human Rights organization, which also shows its concern about restrictions on the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression in Mexico and Canada.
“With barely ten weeks to go until the start of the World Cup, FIFA’s commitment to organizing a tournament in which everyone feels ‘safe, included and free to exercise their rights’ requires urgent action to prevent this beautiful competition from ending with a bad result,” Amnesty maintains.
