This is the moment a migrant was caught trying to smuggle himself out of Britain in the back of a lorry, pleading to police: ‘I just want to go back to France!’

The man was spotted jumping out of a lorry while it was being searched by officers at the Port of Dover ferry terminal in Kent before running towards the exit.

The footage features in the latest episode of Channel 4 documentary Dover 24/7: Britain’s Busiest Port which follows the site’s police force and airs at 8pm today.

Officers patrolling the port were filmed chasing after the migrant in their police van then grabbing him and pushing him up against a concrete barrier near the taxi rank.

One officer says that ‘we’ve got a prisoner’ as others arrive to stop him escaping again, but the man tells them: ‘Why prisoner? I just want to go back to France!’

The clip shared with the Daily Mail shows officers Neil and Ian working at the port after they arrested another man who failed to appear at court in a separate case.

While heading to a local police station, they get an urgent call about the migrant, saying: ‘There’s a male making off down the buffer zone, away from Securitas.’

The officers perform a U-turn and head to the exit to capture the man, who is described to them as ‘Asian-looking, grey hooded jacket, black jogging bottoms’.

Officers apprehend the migrant after he jumped out of a lorry at the Port of Dover ferry terminal

The officers take the man to a police van as he pleads: ‘I just want to go back to France!’

As they drive towards the taxi rank, the man is spotted and one of them shouts: ‘There he is, there he is, get ready.’ They pull up in the van and shout ‘Stop!’

The officers jump out of the van, and another says: ‘Stay where you are.’ One officer grabs hold of the man before a colleague helps and puts him up against a wall.

A third officer then also arrives to assist. One says: ‘We’ve got a prisoner. You get the van.’ They tell the man: ‘Stay there, we’ve got time.’

But the migrant says to them: ‘Why prisoner? I just want to go back to France!’

The officer then says: ‘But I don’t know what you’ve done. The last I know, you’re running away from someone. France say no.’

The police are told the man has just jumped out the back of a lorry after apparently being illegally stowed in the back – and there are another four people in the trailer.

One officer says: ‘Oh God! Did you… four more in the trailer.’

The migrant continues to plead: ‘I just want to go back to France!’

But the officer tells him: ‘I understand. You’re in this country and there’s borders and the French say you’re in here, you’re not allowed to France.’

They put him in a police van and he is told: ‘OK, you’re in there for a minute, nothing silly.’

An officer says: ‘Obviously we’ve got a prisoner in our van but we’ve got a shout from our colleagues that believe that there’s still some more in the lorry.

The man is put into a police van by the officers after being caught at the ferry terminal in Kent

The officers had spotted the man running away towards the taxi rank at the Port of Dover

‘But the security team are dealing with that. We need to get to custody because this man is under arrest.’ They then ask him: ‘Are you okay in the back there?’

The officers then joke with each other that one of them had ‘said the Q word’ earlier on – suggesting it had been a quiet night, which is seen as bad luck on the shift.

The Port of Dover Police later confirmed that the man received a ‘community resolution’. This an out-of-court order normally used for less serious crimes and incidents such as low-level public order, criminal damage, theft and minor assaults.

It comes as the Daily Mail revealed how Labour has secretly dropped a ban on small-boat migrants and other illegal immigrants winning British citizenship.

The extraordinary U-turn came in the wake of a legal challenge which claimed the policy was a breach of human rights laws and international refugee treaties.

It means illegal migrants who win asylum here will now be able to secure British passports – three years after they were barred from doing so by the Tories.

Under documents drawn up by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, they have to claim it was ‘outside their control’ that they arrived in the UK without permission.

‘Dover 24/7: Britain’s Busiest Port’ airs on Channel 4 at 8pm this evening