Unlike Cologne where hundreds of women were sexually assaulted by refugees and police were ineffective, Finnish police was ‘tipped off’ about plans by groups of asylum seekers to sexually harass women on New Year Eve.
Asylum seekers met in Helsinki to celebrate New Years’s Eve “had similar plans” to commit sexual assault targeting women as in the Germany city of Cologne, Finnish Police have reported.
Three Iraqi asylum seekers have been arrested for committing sexual assaults during the celebrations in the city’s Senate Square, where some 20,000 had gathered.
Security personnel reported “widespead sexual harrassment” during the celebrations, with women complaining that asylum seekers had groped them without permission.
According to the deputy chief of police in Helsinki, Ilkka Koskimaki,”We have never before had this kind of sexual harassment happening at New Year’s Eve.” He said that the police had received tip-offs from staff at the asylum reception centres.
He said that Helsinki police had established a “very massive presence” to control the estimated 1,000 Iraqi asylum seekers who had gathered surrounding the central railway station & many of whom appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
According to Mr Koskimaki sexual assaults on the streets had been unknown in Finland before 32,000 asylum seekers arrived in 2015, making the 14 cases last year., highest ever so far in the city.
New Year sex attack spike in Helsinki https://t.co/l6YWkaqS5a
— Helsinki Daily (@HelsinkiDaily) January 8, 2016
Interestingly, libral Finnish interior minister, Petteri Orpo, condemned the new Finnish vigilante groups who calling themselves “Soldiers of Odin”, to protect citizens.
Generally citizens vigilante group prop up when the state or the government are inept to save ordinary public. Similar vigilante group named ‘Dusseldorf is Watching’ has since gained 8,000 followers in Germany.
However Petteri Orpo, Finnish interior minister, in an interview with national broadcaster YLE stated that carrying out street patrols does not increase security,”.