Slovenia Parliament Amends Law on "Erased"

The amendments were adopted in a partisan 48:30 vote, according to the Slovenian Press Agency.

This latest effort represents yet another attempt to try to resolve the status of the thousands of people who were erased from the country's citizenship and residence records in 1992, most of whom were nationals of other Yugoslav countries.

An initial decision was made in February 2009. It concerned about 2,200 people who were then given the possibility of retroactively obtaining permanent resident status.

The erased who were not eligible for the first round of retroactive resident permits will have three years to file their applications, according to the new government motion.

Children of the erased will also be eligible under the new measure. Many of these children do not have  permanent resident status in Slovenia, which many claim violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the principle of protecting the well-being of children.

Those who have been convicted, or are under investigation or criminal proceedings, for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, are not eligible to apply.

Almost 26,000 people, mainly nationals of other Yugoslav republics, were deleted from Slovenia’s permanent residence registry in 1992. For years their status has been a matter of concern in the country and in the EU. Many of the erased, including people who had lived in the country for years, either left Slovenia after their records were erased or were deported.  

Official data show that the erased include 14,775 men and 10,896 women, 5,360 of whom were children.

According to the Slovenian Interior Ministry, about 7,300 of these people acquired Slovenian citizenship by January 2009, while around 3,600 received permanent residency status.

There are no data on the status of more than 13,000 people affected by the erasure.

The deletion of thouands of people from the country's permanent residence registery is considered one of the gravest human rights violations in independent Slovenia.

The Constitutional Court ruled the erasure illegal twice, once in 1999 and again in 2003, and said that that those affected should have their status of permanent resident reinstated retroactively from the day the records were deleted.

A 2003 law which aimed to allow the retroactive reinstatement of status to the erased was rejected in a 2004 referendum called by the opposition. The Interior Ministry then started reinstating the status to the erased based directly on the Constitutional Court ruling and managed to issue some 4,000 decisions.

Several attempts to resolve the issue with a law followed, however none of the motions garnered enough support in parliament.