On 26 February 1992, the Slovenian government deleted 25,000 citizens, or 1.3% of its population, from official databases. This action, described by writer, film-maker, and anthropologist Miha Mazzini, transformed these individuals into illegal immigrants overnight.
The criterion for deletion was being born in another part of the former Yugoslavia while being a permanent resident of Slovenia. Those affected lost their citizenship, right to reside, healthcare, and pension without prior notification or right to appeal.
Mazzini, who researched the event for his book Erased, recounts stories of individuals losing their identity, such as a woman whose son was deemed non-existent when she tried to register him for school. Another man, born in Serbia, was deported to Croatia, which was at war with Serbia at the time, and treated as a prisoner of war.
For six years, many of the erased lived in hiding, working illegally for subsistence wages. Some returned home to find their flats occupied by others. In 1998, the Slovenian constitutional court ruled the erasure unconstitutional, though the process of restoring rights and securing compensation has been ongoing for some victims.