As Seattle prepares for the World Cup to bring 750,000 visitors and close to a billion dollars in economic impact to the region, advocates are also preparing for an expected increase in human trafficking that typically accompanies large-scale sporting events.
Advocates say it’s hard to track or estimate how many human trafficking victims might be brought to the area during the World Cup, but local organisations are raising awareness and preparing early to try to help.
“We know that Seattle, being the corridor, with the I-5 corridor, we’re in the top 10 in human trafficking already, but with the World Cup coming, that just escalates everything,” Christine Gilge with Compassion Washington said.
Compassion Washington has been working with human trafficking victims for years. Gilge is organising a summit on Friday in Auburn to raise awareness and educate the public about the signs to look for, encouraging people to report anything they observe.
“It’s the perfect storm for a predator,” Gilge said. “They will go unnoticed, as well as the victims, because we’re all busy, we’re excited about a game, we’re not going to recognize the signs.”
Advocates also plan to hand out information at the games to raise awareness, as well as go into areas where trafficking is a known issue to reach out to victims and offer support.
“The population increases the difficulty in tracking johns, and the young girls who are involved in human trafficking become more difficult,” Dave Reichert, the former King County Sheriff, said.
Local organisations fighting human trafficking also say they don’t have enough resources to meet the need, so they’re also looking to secure extra beds for emergency shelter for victims.
“We are in a corridor from Mexico to Vancouver, B.C., along the west coast here, and we haven’t made much progress in paying attention to our responsibility to keep these young girls safe and off the street,” Reichert said.
The World Cup coming to Seattle in 2026 creates conditions that traffickers exploit: massive influxes of tourists with money to spend, packed hotels and entertainment districts, law enforcement attention diverted to crowd control and security, and the anonymity that comes with hundreds of thousands of strangers moving through the city.
The 750,000 visitors expected represent roughly the entire population of Seattle arriving over a concentrated period. This temporary population explosion creates chaos that traffickers use to their advantage, moving victims into the area to meet increased demand for commercial sex.
The nearly billion-dollar economic impact includes spending on hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and unfortunately, illicit services including commercial sexual exploitation. Major sporting events historically correlate with increased sex trafficking as demand surges.
Seattle’s position in the I-5 corridor connecting Mexico to Canada makes it a natural trafficking route. The interstate facilitates moving victims between cities, with Seattle serving as a hub where people can be transported north to Vancouver, south to Portland and California, or held locally.
The “top 10 in human trafficking” statistic Gilge cited reflects Seattle’s position as a major West Coast city with ports, airports, and highway connections that traffickers use to move victims. Urban areas with significant economic activity attract trafficking operations.
Gilge’s “perfect storm for a predator” description captures how World Cup conditions benefit traffickers: distracted crowds focused on games, overwhelmed law enforcement, packed hotels where suspicious activity blends in, and thousands of potential buyers creating unprecedented demand.
The summit Friday in Auburn represents proactive preparation months before the tournament. Educating the public about warning signs, like someone who appears coached on what to say, lacks control over identification documents, shows signs of physical abuse, or defers to another person to speak, could help identify victims.
The information distribution at games puts awareness materials directly in front of the massive crowds. Hotel staff, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, and ordinary citizens who know what to look for become additional eyes helping identify trafficking situations.
Going into known trafficking areas to reach victims demonstrates the dual approach: prevention through public awareness combined with direct outreach offering victims ways to escape exploitation.
Reichert’s comment about increased population making it difficult to track “johns,” the term for men who purchase commercial sex, reflects law enforcement challenges. With hundreds of thousands of visitors, identifying and prosecuting buyers becomes nearly impossible when they blend into legitimate tourist crowds.
The reference to “young girls” highlights that many trafficking victims are minors. Whilst adult sex trafficking occurs, children face particular vulnerability and suffer severe trauma that affects their entire lives.
The insufficient resources and need for extra emergency shelter beds reveals the gap between the expected increase in victims needing help and organisations’ capacity to provide it. Shelters that might have two or three beds available can’t accommodate dozens of victims if a major trafficking operation is disrupted.
Reichert’s statement about not making progress on responsibility to keep young girls safe and off the street criticises the regional response spanning from Mexico to British Columbia. Despite Seattle’s position on a known trafficking corridor, resources and political will haven’t matched the problem’s scale.
