Three Libyan soldiers who were convicted of sexual assaulting women while stationed at an army base are seeking asylum in the UK, police have said.

Khaled El Azibi, Naji El Maarfi and Mohammed Abdalsalam carried out the attacks while stationed at Bassingbourn barracks last October.

Cambridge police said the men had been released from prison and transferred to secure immigration units, according to the BBC. The grounds on which the men are claiming asylum have not been revealed.

A lawyer for one of their three victims said the woman was dismayed. Solicitor Richard Scorer said: “It’s difficult enough to recover from a situation where you’re set upon by a stranger and sexually assaulted. But if you have to do that in the knowledge that that person has now come to this country and is trying to build a life here, I think that is very, very, very difficult to deal with, and completely wrong and unacceptable.

“I think it’s a breach of their human rights and really we can’t allow this to happen.”

The cadets were among 300 troops being trained to support the newly formed Libyan government. They stole bicycles and rode into Cambridge city centre before accosting three teenage women during the early hours of 26 October 2014.

The attacks included trying to kiss a woman without consent and then sexually assaulting her. El Maarfi exposed himself to one of the women.

The men each served sentences of between 10 and 12 months before being released from prison. Immigration experts told the BBC they could now claim they were being persecuted in their home country, or there was a “fear of persecution” for bringing Libya into disrepute as a result of their criminal convictions in the UK.

In 2013, the G8 countries agreed to support Libya’s efforts to increase the effectiveness and capacity of its security and justice sector institutions. In support of this effort, the UK, US and other European partners agreed to train more than 7,000 Libyan troops to help Libya disarm and integrate armed groups, and improve the security and stability of the country and the region.

As part of this package, David Cameron announced that the UK would train up to 2,000 Libyan armed forces personnel in basic infantry and junior command skills. But the plan was put on hold and soldiers sent home after a “collapse of discipline” and a series of criminal charges and convictions for sex offences.

Two other cadets, Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abugtila, 23, were jailed for the brutal rape of a man in Cambridge last year in a separate incident.

So serious was the disorder that police began conducting frequent patrols around the Bassingbourn base as residents of the nearby village feared more “escapes” and attacks. The base was reinforced with further troops from 2 Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, who were drafted in “to bolster security and reassure the local population”.

AMinistry of Defence spokesman told the Guardian at the time that the group of soldiers had been carefully chosen after undergoing immigration, security and medical checks and that the majority had responded positively, but admitted there had been disciplinary issues.

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said that of 328 Libyans originally signed up to the scheme, about 100 left during the course of their training by agreement with the Libyan authorities.

The remainder had all been returned “properly” to Libya, he added, apart from the five convicted of sex offences and those others who had claimed asylum.

The prime minister has previously insisted that no Libyan soldiers involved in the MoD programme should be granted asylum after a “very small handful” made applications to stay in the UK.

The Home Office, which does not comment on individual cases, said: “Those who break our laws should be removed from the country at the earliest opportunity and we will seek to remove any foreign national offender who receives a custodial sentence for a criminal offence.”