Germany Considers Deportation amid Assaults on Women in Cologne

Germany is at odds at how to respond to the numerous accounts of sexual assault that took place on New Year's Eve in Cologne.

According to an internal report written by a senior official that was obtained by Der Spiegel, the police were overwhelmed by the amount of cases involving groups of drunk men attacking women and children, who were either alone or with other people.

The official had written, "Women, accompanied or not, literally ran a 'gauntlet' through masses of heavily intoxicated men that words cannot describe."

He also referred to entire night as a "chaotic and shameful evening," which the German police initially failed to admit. Prior to the report, the police had described New Year's Eve as relaxed. They have since taken back that statement. The police are now stating that more than 100 women have filed criminal complaints, with two of the cases involving rapes.

The mess was - in large part - due to the lack of officers. The officers that were on duty, however, were not helpful either, as they all had "reached the limits of their abilities pretty quickly." The report added that the police could not contain the hoards of men that were attacking the women and groups. The police also could not physically help every single woman that was seeking to file a complaint.

"They grabbed our arms... pushed our clothes away, and tried to get between our legs or I don't know where," one victim told the BBC News. "They got everything we had in our pockets."

Another one recalled, "I heard a sizzling sound in my hood. I somehow tried to get it out of the hood. Then it fell into my jacket and burned everything. The scars will stay. I was lucky that it didn't explode."

The groups of men have been described as migrants, but identifying the exact perpetrators is "unfortunately no longer possible."

The official continued in the report, "Security forces were unable to get all of the incidents, assaults, crimes, etc. under control. There were simply too many happening at the same time."

The entire situation has brought up two main problems for Germany: the failure of the police department in controlling the mayhem and the presence of migrants, who are not abiding by German laws. In regards to the latter, Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the nation must now consider what to do with the attackers who had migrated to the country.

"We must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of ... deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order," Merkel said reported by the Associated Press via ABC News.

She added, "The feeling women had in this case of being at people's mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well. And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table."

German officials have cautioned the public to avoid generalizing the actions of these men to the entire migrant population.

Germany is known for taking in refugees and migrants from around the world. In 2015, the country welcomed almost 1.1 million people who were seeking asylum.