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Imagine waking up one morning and discovering that you no longer exist. That's happened to 130,000 people in Slovenia. People who had been born or had lived most of their lives in this newly independent state have discovered that their government has 'erased' them from all public records.

They have lost their jobs. Their children have been turned away at the school gates. Pensions have vanished. Suddenly they have no health insurance. Many have been evicted from their homes.

When Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia and became independent in 1991, one of the first acts of the new government was to remove non-ethnic Slovenes from the public registries. Their votes had counted in the referendum for Slovenian independence, but now they're not welcome in the new republic.

In Slovenia they are known as the 'erased people' and their lives have become Kafkaesque. The Helsinki Monitor of Slovenia has documented 6,500 cases of what they call "civic death," or "administrative genocide."

Ten years ago construction worker Franjo Herman became one of those people. Born in Croatia, he moved to Slovenia in 1955. Like all former Yugoslavs he had had the right to live anywhere in what was then a united Yugoslavia. Deregistered, he lost all his social security benefits. In August 2000 he was diagnosed with cancer. Franjo paid his National Insurance until the day he was 'erased'. They refused to treat him at the hospital. They said he wasn't insured. Mr Herman died a year ago, untreated and unrecognised by the state he had lived in for nearly fifty years.

Officials of the European Union were horrified at the actions of the nation whose independence they had brought about. They pressurised Slovenia's authorities to adopt legislation to deal with the injustices. That law took effect in August 1999. It gave 'the erased' three months to apply for citizenship. Only 14,000 people took up the offer, although 70,000 of these people, according to UNHCR, were still living in Slovenia. Critics, including a senior judge, now say the legislation was impractical - many people simply didn't know the law existed, others couldn't get required documents in the time allowed.

Those who overcame the obstacles found more hurdles to jump - they needed to prove they had lived in Slovenia before independence. How do you do that when there are no records of your existence?

And it's still happening. Two years ago Milenko Zoric tried to extend his driving license. The Ministry of the Interior said he couldn't. He was no longer 'in the computer.' Apparently he was a Slovenian no more. Officials told him that because he'd been out of the country for more than three months he was now an illegal alien.

Desperate, many have fled. Those who have stayed behind live in fear of arrest, abuse and deportation.

The latest EU report on enlargement says: 'Slovenia continues to respect human rights and freedoms.'