New details have come to light regarding the alleged sexual assault by foreigners of a group of Belgian students celebrating New Year’s Eve in Milan’s iconic Piazza Duomo.
Six young people from Liège — four young women and two men — had traveled to the city for the holiday. According to one of the victims, identified as 21-year-old Laura Barbier from Anthisnes, what was supposed to be a festive occasion quickly descended into chaos when a large group of young men, many reportedly waving flags of countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, surrounded them near the entrance of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II just after midnight.
“They held our hands while others touched us under our clothes,” Laura recounted in an interview with Italian news outlet Ansa, describing the assault as “a night of terror.”
Newly arrived North African asylum seekers record a message for Italians on New Year’s Eve while celebrating in front of the Milan Cathedral:
”F*ck Italy & f*ck the police”
Italians used to gather in front of the cathedral for NYE midnight but no longer go there for some reason pic.twitter.com/PdlZFw88kU
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 1, 2025She added that the group felt “powerless in the face of so much violence,” estimating that around 30 to 40 men were involved.
“We were harassed there. They touched us over our clothes, but also underneath,” Laura told Belgian news site 7s7. “Three of us, including myself, were sexually assaulted. They put their hands in my underwear. It went way too far.”
The Belgian students managed to escape toward Piazza della Scala, where they found a police officer and shared what had happened.
Laura said the Belgian group had previously approached police stationed in Piazza Duomo to ask for help finding a taxi. However, she believes the officers did not witness the assault because it occurred “behind a column” amidst the New Year’s Eve crowd. She emphasizes how difficult it was to move due to the sheer number of people.
“They literally said there was no point and sent us away with a ‘ciao’,” said Laura describing the response of the Milan police to their protests.
Although no formal complaints were filed on the night of the incident, Laura claims she and her friends will lodge an official report with Belgian police this week. The Italian authorities are expected to receive the complaint and could launch an investigation based on the group’s testimony and available security camera footage.
Silvia Sardone, a Milan city councilor and Member of the European Parliament with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega party, brought public attention to the allegations, calling the reported attack yet another example of “failed integration” for young foreign-born individuals in Italy.
“Their testimony is terrible: They say they were attacked in front of dozens of people in the square,” said Sardone, as cited by Il Giornale newspaper.
“If the attack were confirmed, it would be the confirmation of indecent and unacceptable violence by young foreigners and second-generation people in Milan exactly as happened years ago. Therefore not only brawls and insults towards Italy and the police but also long sexual assaults on tourists present in the square.
“I would like to point out that Mayor Sala said nothing about the behavior of the young foreigners in Piazza Duomo and that there was no comment from members of the left on the videos circulated online,” she added.
Sardone also highlighted her position that “more restrictive rules on citizenship are needed because there are too many foreigners who commit crimes and do not deserve to be in our country.”
Italian authorities have not yet confirmed any details beyond the statements made publicly by the alleged victims and Sardone. The Milan police are expected to review security camera footage from the Piazza Duomo area, including entrances and exits to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, to see if any suspicious behavior was captured.
Investigators could also seek testimony from bystanders, including an Italian couple who reportedly intervened to help Laura and her friends escape the melee.
Laura, now back in Belgium and seeking psychological help following the attack, added, “I thought this only happened in movies. But now that it’s happened to me, I can’t keep quiet. This has to stop.”
It is not the first such attack involving migrants in Milan on New Year’s Eve. As Remix News previously reported, in the night of 2021 going into 2022, a group of 18 migrants sexually assaulted Italian women in an incident that was caught on video.
According to government statistics, 42 percent of all rapes in Italy are committed by migrants despite only being 8 percent of the Italian population.
Milan, in particular, has witnessed a dramatic rise in public disorder and crime following a significant influx of illegal immigration, predominantly from northern Africa via the Mediterranean. In 2022, local League Party MEP Silvia Sardone lamented the demise of the city, regarding the number of illegal immigrants and vagrants on Milanese streets as an “absolute degradation” equal to that of “the third world.”
The constant news stories year after year about migrants involved in sexual assaults on New Year’s raises memories of the horrific scenes witnessed in Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve in 2015 — where the German Federal Criminal Police estimated that nearly 2,000 women had been sexually assaulted by primarily North African and Middle Eastern migrants.
