Migrants from Arab countries are spreading fear and terror in the hearts of peace-loving Europeans on New Year’s Eve and more sex assaults are expected in the future.
Dozens of apparently coordinated sexual assaults against women first took place in the western German city of Cologne.
Police said they had received 120 criminal complaints by 7 January and quoted witnesses as saying that groups of 20-30 young men "who appeared to be of Arab origin" had surrounded victims, assaulted them and in several cases robbed them.
Shortly before New Year's Eve, Finnish police also arrested six Iraqis at an asylum residency center in Kirkkonummi, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Helsinki, suspected of "publicly inciting criminal behavior". They were released on 2 January 2016, but are expected to do the same crime once the heat has died down.
According to Helsinki deputy police chief Ilkka Koskimaki, the arrests were linked to the information police received in the run-up to New Year's Eve.
Koskimaki told AFP: "There hasn't been this kind of harassment on previous New Year's Eves or other occasions for that matter... This is a completely new phenomenon in Helsinki."
Security guards hired to patrol the city on New Year's Eve told police there had been "widespread sexual harassment" at a central square where around 20,000 people had gathered for celebrations.
Three sexual assaults allegedly took place at Helsinki's central railway station on New Year's Eve, where around 1,000 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers had converged.
"Police have... received information about three cases of sexual assault, of which two have been filed as complaints," Helsinki police said in a statement.
"The suspects were asylum seekers. The three were caught and taken into custody on the spot," Koskimaki told AFP.
In November, Finnish authorities said around 10 asylum seekers were suspected of rapes, among the more than 1,000 rapes reported to police in 2015.
Dozens of apparently coordinated sexual assaults against women first took place in the western German city of Cologne.
Police said they had received 120 criminal complaints by 7 January and quoted witnesses as saying that groups of 20-30 young men "who appeared to be of Arab origin" had surrounded victims, assaulted them and in several cases robbed them.
Shortly before New Year's Eve, Finnish police also arrested six Iraqis at an asylum residency center in Kirkkonummi, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Helsinki, suspected of "publicly inciting criminal behavior". They were released on 2 January 2016, but are expected to do the same crime once the heat has died down.
According to Helsinki deputy police chief Ilkka Koskimaki, the arrests were linked to the information police received in the run-up to New Year's Eve.
Koskimaki told AFP: "There hasn't been this kind of harassment on previous New Year's Eves or other occasions for that matter... This is a completely new phenomenon in Helsinki."
Security guards hired to patrol the city on New Year's Eve told police there had been "widespread sexual harassment" at a central square where around 20,000 people had gathered for celebrations.
Three sexual assaults allegedly took place at Helsinki's central railway station on New Year's Eve, where around 1,000 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers had converged.
"Police have... received information about three cases of sexual assault, of which two have been filed as complaints," Helsinki police said in a statement.
"The suspects were asylum seekers. The three were caught and taken into custody on the spot," Koskimaki told AFP.
In November, Finnish authorities said around 10 asylum seekers were suspected of rapes, among the more than 1,000 rapes reported to police in 2015.