Justice evades Slovenia’s ‘erased’ citizens

March 29, 2017 1:21 PM

Over the next years, Beširević lost everything: his apartment; his job at one of Slovenia’s finest 5-star hotels; the health care he needed to keep the thrombosis in his legs at bay. When he began to tell his story publicly, his family told him he was embarrassing them. Eventually he lost them too. He slept on the streets. He went to the Red Cross, only to be told they couldn’t help him, because he didn’t exist.
posted by orrnyereg (4 comments total)

Stunningly appropriate on Brexit day. Thanks for this.
posted by plep at 1:34 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

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posted by saulgoodman at 1:41 PM on March 29, 2017

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posted by strixus at 2:11 PM on March 29, 2017

Wow, I had no idea about this; somehow I thought of Slovenia as a "nice" country (probably because they mostly stayed out of the genocidal Balkan wars of the 1990s). Now I learn:

Of all 47 members of the Council of Europe, Slovenia has the highest rate of human rights violations, with 148 violations per million people. As of 2016, Slovenia had lost 94 percent of its cases — the same rate as Russia.

And this has, shall we say, resonance beyond Slovenia:

“Everything was communicated in terms of security issues,” she says. “Sooner or later, you felt like they were a threat.”

posted by languagehat at 3:01 PM on March 29, 2017 [3 favorites]