Did Spain prove via Ceuta that welfare is what pulls in low-skill migrants?

If the US the EU shut down their respective cradle-to-grave welfare states, would there still be billions of humans (none of whom are “illegal”) seeking to enter?

“Spain ‘denies Ceuta migrants food and water’ to get them to leave” (The Times, August 3, 2026):

Many of the thousands who remain in the territory after crossing the border from Morocco say they have not been given aid or shelter

It is day five of Ceuta’s migrant crisis, and 60,000 people have crossed the border from Morocco, according to Spain’s interior ministry. Some 3,000 to 5,000 still remain, Ceuta’s leader Juan Jesús Vivas estimated, but many of those who have stayed claim they have not been given food, water or shelter.

The Times understands that Ceutan residents were actively discouraged from providing aid to migrants, in the hope that they would return to Morocco.

The only migrant accommodation in the territory is at capacity and has gone into lockdown. Staff prevented those inside from passing water or food to the hundreds outside the gates, lying on the dirt, including Dfalla Sliman, 21, from Sudan. They have slept here for days. Others are from Yemen, Syria and Eritrea, and they have travelled for months.

“I’m very hungry. They say everything is finished,” said Sliman, who had unbandaged wounds on his arms and legs. “And no water; they say everything is finished. I’ll wait until everyone leaves.”

“We understood that selling them water and food was necessary. It was logical to sell them so [they would not] go hungry. But the police came and said it was better if we didn’t give them anything, no food, no drink, because that’s how they left. The effect of not eating or drinking meant … that voluntarily many left.”

Spain, of course, in its eagerness to deny migrants the asylum hearings to which they’re entitled, seems to have gone beyond a simple “no welfare” approach by also trying to prevent migrants from buying things at retail and trying to block charity.

Related:

• “Joint statement on the humanitarian situation in Gaza” (official August 2025 Spanish government communication, translated by Google Chrome): “The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is spreading before our eyes. Urgent action is needed to halt and reverse this hunger. … We urge the Government of Israel to authorize all aid shipments from international NGOs … All border crossings and routes must be used to allow a massive influx of aid to Gaza, including food, nutritional supplements, shelter, fuel, drinking water, medicines, and medical equipment.”
• “Speech by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the Rome Nutrition Week” (May 26, 2026, translated by Chrome): “Certainly in Gaza, where some intend to win a war by subjecting its people to starvation. These are, incidentally, the same people who last week humiliated, abused, and mistreated the members of a flotilla whose only intention was to deliver humanitarian aid.” (There was no “flotilla of aid” for the starving refugees in Ceuta? It’s a 12-mile trip from mainland Spain, less than one hour in a power boat.)