Imagine showing up at a government office, to apply for unemployment, or to register the birth of a child. You're asked for your papers, and the clerk destroys them in front of you because you are not a citizen. That's what happened to thousands of Slovenian residents after Slovenia gained independence in 1991. 18,000 permanent residents were purged from oficial records-- one percent of the population. They call themselves the Erased. This week the caravan of the Erased of Slovenia came through Italy, France and Belgium to bring European attention to the issue. This is particularly timely as Slovenia is set to take over the presidency of the European Union in 2008. I met up with some of the Erased when they were in Paris on November 28.