NEW YORK: FIFA should stage a minute’s silence before the World Cup final for the two people shot dead by US immigration agents this month, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
A Colombian man was killed in Maine on Monday, while a Mexican man was killed in Houston last week, both during traffic stops as part of President Donald Trump’s immigrant crackdown.
“It would be entirely appropriate for FIFA to stage a minute of silence before the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium,” Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, told AFP in an interview.
“There is an ICE detention facility only nine miles away, and it is an opportunity that FIFA has to make good on its promises that this World Cup would uphold human rights,” she added.
The 2026 World Cup was the first to include human rights criteria in the bidding process, and follows complaints over previous tournaments held in Russia and Qatar.
