The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 93THE ERASURE AS A VIOLATION OF LEGALLY PROTECTED HUMAN RIGHTS93then came out and brought the papers, and then they took me downstairs. WhenI heard that I was sentenced to expulsion from the Republic of Slovenia, I wentmad and I hit my head with the glass there, on Mala ulica 3. […] They tied meup and beat me. Then they took me to the Medical Center to have my woundstitched. From the Medical Center they took me to that freaky place in Šiška [TheTransitory Home for Aliens on Celovška Street]. I was detained all night; therewere many people there; people were sleeping on the floor. I don’t know when theytook me there - I was in shock, I only know that it was in the night. They let mego when my friends called the social workers who presumably – I didn’t know it– repeatedly called the police all night. They faxed them my certificate of Slove -nian citizenship. (Rifet, 45)This erased person spent only one night in the Center for Aliens, and it wasnot only his right to freedom of movement that was violated, but also the prohibitionof torture, inhuman or humiliating treatment was breached. The story ofAlmir below testifies to a much longer detention in this institution:In 1995 two policemen stopped me in the street to check my identification. Theyasked for my documents, and I told them that I didn’t have them. They took meto the police station in Polje where they kept me for four hours. Then they tookme to court and I was sentenced to pay 8000 tolars for illegally residing in Slovenia.From there they took me to the Center for Aliens. They didn’t explain anythingand I didn’t get any paper saying what it was all about. I was not given achance to go to the apartment where I lived to collect some necessary things likeclothes. I was locked in the room overnight, and in the morning a social workerand an inspector arrived. They gave me a document confirming that I was detainedin the Center for Aliens. One month later I got a one-way passport; thatdocument was valid for 48 hours, to leave Slovenia. They took me to the Dolgavas border crossing along with another person, gave me a bus ticket to Belgradeand 50 German marks. I didn’t make it to Serbia because I didn’t have an entryvisa, so I got off the bus. The road took me to Budapest to the Yugoslav Embassy,where they required 500 forints for a Serbian visa and told me that the waitingtime to get a visa was 6 months. I couldn’t take that option. I spent two days atthe railway station in Budapest, where the police again checked my identificationand I was detained for 8 hours. The Hungarian police then took me to the Dolgavas border crossing, where the Slovenian police waited for me and took me toProsenjakovci to the Center for Aliens. I spent three months in Prosenjakovci andwas then moved, because of my poor health (asthmatic), to Ljubljana, to the TransitoryHome for Aliens on Celovška 166. I stayed in the Transitory home forAliens, open department, from 15th of May 1995 until the end of 2001. I hadpermission to go out, to stay at home for a week now and then, but even on thesedays I had to report to the Home every day at 22h. In the beginning of 2002 I wasreleased after my friend guaranteed that he would take care of me. I rememberthat at the time when I lived in the Center, 40 percent of people there, I reckon,