During the 1999 war in Kosovo, Romani communities did not align militarily with Serbian or Albanian forces during the ethnic-based conflict. As a result, four-fifths of the Romani people in Kosovo were violently expelled from their homes. NATO did not intervene. In total, 100,000 Romani Kosovars were displaced. 50,000 fled to the European Union; however, due to their legal status as internally displaced persons, they were not legally allowed to freely leave the territories of the former Yugoslavia.