Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it also includes indirect methods aimed at forced migration by coercing the victim group to flee and preventing its return, such as murder, rape, and property destruction. The definition of ethnic cleansing is disputed, with some researchers including and others excluding coercive assimilation or mass killings as a means of depopulating an area of a particular group.