Erick is the Programme Manager for International Migration Strategies. Erick joined in September 2025 and is currently supporting the RSO’s Six Country Irregular Migration (SCIM) Initiative to strengthen collaboration between countries with the most acute shared irregular migration challenges in the Asia-Pacific.

Erick has worked in humanitarian affairs and diplomacy for the past eight years, joining RSO after four years at the United Nations in New York. He most recently served as Humanitarian Affairs Adviser for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Delegation to the UN, working on migrant protection, government engagement, and interagency cooperation. Prior to that he was Senior Policy Adviser to the UK Mission to the UN responsible for sustainable development and global health policy during COVID-19 after holding various roles for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Recommended book: Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Savior by Peter Tinti and Tuesday Reitano – while the book is around a decade old now, the picture it paints of the drivers of global smuggling networks is more relevant now than when the book was written. It provides a wider reflection on how global migration policy is struggling to adapt to the increased movement of people worldwide, and how smuggling emerges and operates to capitalize upon it. Having an inside view of what incentivizes the smuggling industry can help policymakers understand how to tackle its drivers and how the most vulnerable bear the highest price.

Email: Erick.Thomas@rso.baliprocess.net