by Viktorija Plavcak
Slovenia

Slovenia, a new member of the European Union since September 2007, is a state where the rights of individuals are trampled on every day and nobody cares. Some may feign concern in public, but in the solitude of their homes they spit on those who don't fit in. They curse them and their children, calling them thieves, crooks and killers. Even worse, they threaten them with violence and want the government to evict them from any safe haven they might find in the country.

• Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia. Photograph by Rosino. •

When the Gypsies came to town

When I was little, it was a holiday in our village when Gypsies came to town. Their air of mystery made our imaginations soar. We adored it when they came on horseback, with all sorts of haberdashery and kitsch. When they set up a carousel, we kids rode round and round for hours, making us very late getting home from school. Winter or summer, they wore only light clothes. They made a lot of noise. Old gypsy women offered to tell our fortunes or begged for money, food or clothes, and my parents never refused. They didn't always come in groups; sometimes individual travelers came to mend all sorts of things from umbrellas, to pots and pans, or they sharpened knives and scissors.

by Viktorija Plavcak
Slovenia

Two weeks ago in Celje, the third largest city in Slovenia, a fifty-year old man, barely able to drive himself to the hospital, walked into the ER in the middle of the night complaining about shortness of breath and severe chest pain. He worried that he was going to suffocate. Unfortunately, he had no doctor’s referral, and even worse, his medical card was invalid. Well aware of these facts, Bojan Kajtna was prepared to pay for his medical examination. Nevertheless, the attending nurse instead referred him to the health center just around the corner to fetch the required referral, a technicality that would allow him admission into the hospital. Unfortunately, Bojan never reached his destination. Just a few steps from the ER, he collapsed and died.

by Viktorija Plavcak
Slovenia

Many European countries, as well as Slovenia, are facing the problem of refugees and illegal runaways. Slovenia is merely a transitory country for many, but since it acts as a divide between the East and European Union states, the customs authorities boast a large number of discovered runaways, some of whom are children. A few are accompanied by their parents, but quite a large number travel unaccompanied. In European terms, these children are now called separated children.

Who are these separated children? They are children who have entered a country escorted by a non-custodial parent or stranger. In many cases they are accompanied by predatory adults entangled in the international network of trafficking, and have made a good bargain by purchasing a child from parents who were lured with false promises of education, employment, happiness, and opportunities.

There are numerous reasons why these children leave their mother country. Refugees flee due to fear of persecution or because of the clashes or political unrest in their native country. Economic migrants flee because of unbearable living conditions such as poverty and want of food, or simply because they are left without parents or have been discarded or abandoned.

Their agony is indescribable. They have been separated from their parents or have lost them. They are often undernourished or suffer inhumane conditions while traveling. Organized networks prey on these children, knowing that they will go unpunished due to the tender age of their victims and the inherent power differential between them. They are trafficked across international borders for labor exploitation and are used for domestic servitude.

by Viktorija Plavcak
- Slovenia -

It has been almost two years since Slovenia became a full member of the European Union. On May 5th, 2005 we entered the European Union after years of pain-staking preparations and compliance with the requisite laws and regulations. The euphoria felt within the nation is indescribable.

The union with the former Yugoslavia brought nothing but debt and turned Slovenia into the milk cow for the entire Balkans region. The attack on Slovenia's freedom turned the country into a fierce animal which fought tooth and nail until finally in 1991, its freedom and independence were secured.

Still, being so small, and without real resources, industry or developed agriculture, it was impossible to survive independently, cut off from the rest of the world. It therefore had to join another union, the European Union, where milk and honey are in abundance.

by Viktorija Plavcak
Slovenia

Some thirty years ago, in a socialist system, we went out to the woods to pick the first snowdrops, to search highs and lows under the snow blanket covering the soft, mossy grounds. We picked and picked until our hands could not carry any more. Our hearts were filled with joy, knowing that our mothers' eyes would light up and glow, that they would gently stroke our heads after we presented them with the first heralds of spring, as we liked to call them. And we all knew that there would be no absolution for those who had forgotten this ever so important event.