At least 145 migrants have swum to Spain's Ceuta enclave from neighbouring Morocco, aided by rubber rings and flimsy rafts, Spanish officials say.
They are reported to be mainly Moroccan males, including many boys, but also at least two families.
Spanish media say Moroccan border guards simply watched as the migrants took to the sea, at great risk.
Ceuta and Spain's Melilla enclave have become magnets for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
On Monday most came around the coast at Benzu on the north side of Ceuta, followed by some at Tarajal on the south side, where there was a similar influx last month. They began arriving at about 02:00 (midnight GMT), swimming around border fences that jut out into the sea.
Most of the roughly 100 who made it to Tarajal last month were sent back, except for around 30 minors, whose ages were confirmed by medical tests.
The arrivals by sea come at a tense time in Morocco's relations with Spain. Morocco is angry that the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has been receiving treatment in a Spanish hospital.
Polisario has been fighting for the independence of Western Sahara for decades. The territory was occupied by Spain until 1975, then Morocco took control of most of it.
The EU border force Frontex reports that illegal migration to Spain's Canary Islands - off the Moroccan coast - has surged this year. In most cases sub-Saharan Africans make perilous journeys in rickety boats and drownings are common.
In the January-April period nearly 4,500 irregular migrants reached the Canaries - more than double the number for the same period in 2020, Frontex reports. Most claimed to be from Mali or Morocco.
In the same period the number of illegal crossings on the Central Mediterranean migrant route increased by 157% from January-April last year. Frontex says nationals of Tunisia and Ivory Coast were the biggest groups. In recent years Italy has been the main destination, though the numbers plummeted last year because of the pandemic.
Read more on migrants reaching Spain
Frontex says detections of illegal crossings in the Eastern Mediterranean - mainly from Turkey to Greece - fell 58% to over 4,800. Migrants from Turkey and Syria formed the largest groups among them.
The numbers remain far below the levels of illegal migration seen in 2015-2016, when more than a million reached central Europe.
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