On his November 5, 2021, third-quarter investor call, Rich Corrado, CEO of Air Transport Services Group took a moment to celebrate one of ATSG’s subsidiaries: Omni Air International. Omni evacuated more than 20,000 US-Americans and at-risk civilians out of Afghanistan in August 2021, contributing to the company’s record quarterly revenue of $466 million.
What Corrado didn’t mention was how ATSG also profited from the dark side of the humanitarian divide that quarter.
In September, Omni planes ferried Haitian asylum seekers from Del Rio, Texas, to El Paso, facilitating “the largest mass deportation campaign in 5 decades with 154 removal flights to Haiti, up from 37 in 2020, that expelled over 15,000 Haitians,” according to Thomas Cartwright, who tracks ICE-Air flight for Witness at the Border. That’s 15,000 men, women, and children expulsed to a country roiled by chaos and gang rule just as 20,000 Afghans facing similar pressures found refuge in the US.
It’s no surprise Corrado omitted Omni’s Haiti connection on the investor call. The company, which makes most of its money shipping packages for Amazon.com, also contracts for the Department of Defense and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement — work conducted largely in the shadows.
Omni is the only charter airline willing to fly long-haul deportations flights for ICE-Air, for which it is handsomely paid — though you won’t find that revenue detailed in ATSG’s earnings reports. In the last half of 2020, Omni flew an ICE-Air mission each month to Africa. From August through December, Omni’s Boeing 767s landed in Nigeria, Senegal, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon (twice).
Omni’s human cargo are enchained, always, in five-point restraints — hands and ankles cuffed in thick metal bracelets and attached to a heavy waist chain — for the duration of their forced "repatriation." Cartwright’s flight data show that after taking off from Fort Worth’s Alliance Field, Omni’s November flight to Luanda, Angola lasted 34 hours and 40 minutes.
That’s 34 hours and 40 minutes unable to feed or to relieve oneself or help oneself in the event of a flight emergency.
Even without cuffs and chains, the flights to Cameroon were particularly egregious. Previously targeted for persecution by Cameroon’s majority Francophone government because of their Anglophone social group membership, these asylum seekers were sent directly back to certain harm — a violation of the international principle of non-refoulement.
But that wasn’t all. ICE agents further restrained some of Omni Air’s unwilling passengers in an FDA-registered medical device called “The WRAP.”
A complaint filed with the US Department of Homeland Security's Offices of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Inspector General on October 13, 2021, reveals that ICE agents use The WRAP to lock bodies at an acute angle consistent with “positional torture” as defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Used per the manufacturer's guidelines, Safe Restraints, Inc, The WRAP immobilizes the legs, leaving its victims sitting up straight so breathing is not compromised. Branded as a “life-saving device,” The WRAP is meant for use in extreme situations when a person has become a threat to self and is in need of immediate medical attention. But according to the complaint’s five first-hand accounts, ICE agents have modified both the purpose and use of The WRAP in violation of both Safe Restraints’ and the agency’s own standards.
Victims' bodies are cinched into a 45-60° angle, with heads pulled toward the knees — a “stress position” that inflicts deliberate pain. Some WRAP victims flown by Omni Air were additionally subjected to hooding — also defined as torture by the UN and a practice banned by the US Army. The physical and psychological trauma caused by being WRAPped, “dumped like trash” across Omni’s middle bank of seats, and left there unattended and shrieking in pain for as many as 10 hours amplified complainants’ underlying medical conditions in all cases.
The manner in which ICE abuses The WRAP constitutes cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, robbing both victims and eyewitnesses of their basic right to dignity. Yet,this treatment is being tolerated by Omni Air owners, staff, and crew, operating under the aegis of ATSG, which brings us back to ATSG’s biggest shareholder…
With a 19.5% ownership stake and enough options to double that, the world’s richest online retailer, Amazon.com, isn’t just wrapping packages anymore. It's complicit in WRAPping people, too, and trafficking them back to certain harm. This past holiday season, as we all took time out to rest and rejuvenate with family and friends, Omni stayed busy. This time, according to Cartwright, expelling asylum seekers to Honduras, too.
Regrettably, as the pandemic conditioned us all to shop online — ballooning ATSG and Amazon’s profits — they’ve made us all accessories to torture.