3 days ago US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has criticised European nations for allowing an "invasion" of migrants connected their shores, during a D-Day day code successful France.
Hegseth was speaking successful Normandy 82 years aft allied forces stormed French beaches to liberate Nazi-occupied north-western Europe successful 1944.
"Sadly, today, antithetic European beaches are stormed by antithetic unsafe ideologies," Hegseth said. "Beaches successful Spain, successful Italy, successful Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When volition European capitals bash thing astir that invasion?"
Migration has go a large governmental contented crossed Europe successful caller years, with parties supporting hardline migration policies surging successful the polls.
Sea arrivals into mainland Europe peaked successful 2015, erstwhile the UN said much than a cardinal radical crossed the Mediterranean. Between April 2025 and March 2026, determination were a combined 169,341 oversea arrivals to the UK, Greece, Italy, Spain and Cyprus. Crossings to the UK accounted for astir 23% of the total.
Hegseth said that successful the years since D-Day immoderate European capitals person grown excessively "comfortable" with their hard-fought freedoms, forgetting that "freedom is not free".
"The men who fought and died present restored state to Europe," Hegseth said. "That state indispensable beryllium maintained by this procreation of leaders and warfare fighters oregon what they fought for was simply temporary."
D-Day was the largest seaborne subject cognition ever attempted and progressive the simultaneous landing of tens of thousands of troops from the UK, US and Canada connected 5 abstracted beaches successful Normandy successful bluish France.
Between 1 January and 3 June 2026, a full of 9,142 radical crossed the English Channel by tiny vessel to the UK from France. This was down by 38% connected the aforesaid play the erstwhile year.
Hegseth's comments people a further disapproval of European migration argumentation by elder members of the Trump administration.
On Friday, US Vice-President JD Vance blamed the decease of the 18-year-old British pupil Henry Nowak, who was fatally stabbed past twelvemonth successful Southampton by Vickrum Digwa, connected the "mass penetration of migrants" and said the "only response" was "righteous anger".
After Vance's station connected X, a Downing Street spokesperson said the Nowak household had "said they bash not privation his decease to beryllium utilized to make further division".
US President Donald Trump has besides criticised European migration policy, telling the UN past twelvemonth that European countries were "going to hell" owed to "uncontrolled migration".
In response, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the president's remarks were "not right", portion accepting the "challenge" of tackling amerciable migration, peculiarly from radical crossing the English Channel successful tiny boats.
In December, the Trump medication unveiled its new National Security Strategy, which asserted that if existent trends proceed Europe would beryllium "unrecognisable successful 20 years oregon less" and its economical issues are "eclipsed by the existent and much stark imaginable of civilisational erasure".
English (US)·