US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has accused European nations of allowing an “invasion” of migrants on their shores, using the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings to deliver a searing critique of their immigration policies.
Speaking on Saturday at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, Hegseth drew a direct parallel between the Allied assault on Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944 and what he described as a modern-day assault by sea.
“US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth likened migration to a D-Day-style 'invasion' in a Normandy speech, despite data showing sharp declines.”
“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said. “Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not.”
His remarks came a day after US Vice-President JD Vance linked the murder of 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak – who was fatally stabbed in Southampton last year by Vickrum Digwa, a British-born man – to what Vance called a “mass invasion of migrants”. Downing Street condemned the comments, saying the Nowak family “said they do not want his death to be used to create further division”.
Despite the bellicose language, official figures show irregular migration across Europe has fallen sharply. In Greece, small boat arrivals dropped from 856,723 in 2015 to 41,696 in 2025 – a 95 per cent decrease. In Italy, sea arrivals fell from 153,842 in 2015 to 66,316 in 2025, a 56.9 per cent drop. In the UK, around 36,000 people arrived by small boat in the year to May 2026, 13 per cent fewer than the previous year and down 21.7 per cent from a peak of 46,000 in 2022. Net migration to the UK stood at an estimated 171,000 in the year to December 2025, down 48.3 per cent from 331,000 the previous year and 82 per cent below its record high of 944,000 in early 2023.
Hegseth’s speech also touched on defence burden-sharing. “America will lead. We must,” he said. “But capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the breach, when it matters.”
The D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 were the largest seaborne military operation in history, involving tens of thousands of troops from the UK, US and Canada. Hegseth warned that European capitals had grown “comfortable” with hard-fought freedoms, adding: “The men who fought and died here restored freedom to Europe. That freedom must be maintained by this generation of leaders and war fighters or what they fought for was merely temporary.”