GETTY It is reveled untrained migrants were employed as security guards on New Year's Eve in Cologne

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But many abandoned their posts and at least one was so drunk he couldn't work. A total of 59 asylum seekers were stationed on bridges across the Rhine to assist in a mammoth security operation aimed at stopping any trouble. Last year mobs of mostly North African men sexually assaulted and robbed hundreds of women in and around the city's main railway station as police totally lost control of the situation.

On September 7, 2015 authorities made the decision to give some refugees a role in the policing of celebrations - a little known fact which has only just emerged.

We knew not at all exactly who these people were. They got a security vest and some radios Former senior executive at Westturm

The security firm Westturm was in charge of hiring the migrants who were told to have a "basic mastery of the German language and to bring along warm clothing”. Bild published a list of those who were hired showing most came from North Africa, Syria and Afghanistan.

GETTY A total of 59 asylum seekers were tasked with assisting and stopping any trouble

They were paid £4.25 (€5) which is little more than half of the statutory minumum wage in Germany. But the city of Cologne was billed three times as much by the security agency which recruited them. The calibre of personnel caused concern long before the fateful night. A former senior executive of Westturm told Bild: "Our employees collected the refugees in three initial reception centres in Ratingen and brought them in minibuses to the bridges where they were stationed.

GETTY Most of the hired men came from North Africa, Syria, and Afghanistan

Cologne: Sex Attacks and Robberies Tue, January 12, 2016 Thirty-one suspects, including 18 asylum seekers, are under investigation over offences including sexual assault and theft in Cologne on New Year's Eve. Far right protestors in Lepzig have rallied against refugees and German chancellor Angela Merkel. Play slideshow Reuters•Getty 1 of 22 Protestors in Lepzig rally after over 100 women were sexually assualted on New Year's Eve

"We knew not at all exactly who these people were. They got a security vest and some radios." Cologne authorities are taking no chances this year and are flooding the city with 1,500 police - ten times the number on duty in 2015 - to stop a repeat of the disgraceful scenes. Police are particularly worried about the Hohenzollern railway bridge over the Rhine which leads into the station. There were fears last year that the mass numbers of people crossing it could have led to a crushing incident and trains had to be cancelled because of the number of people pouring across it.

GETTY 1,500 police units will be stationed around the city this New Year's Eve

Refugees were stationed on it to assist in crowd control. Twenty were also assigned to the Zoo Bridge and others were stationed on the Deutzer and Severnin bridges. But things quickly began to go awry. Five of the 20 refugees on the Zoo Bridge vanished from their posts almost immediately - but time sheets of the Westturm firm showed the city was billed five hours for each of them.

GETTY One refugee is said to have been too drunk to perform his job