The French are showing migrants “where to go” if they veer off course whilst crossing the Channel, it has emerged.

Rescue vessels are pulling up alongside dinghies and waiting as asylum seekers refuel them.

And if they start going in the “wrong direction”, the officers will divert them back towards UK waters.

The staggering admissions will prompt renewed criticism of Labour’s new migrant pact with France.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Daily Express: “This is jaw-dropping. Labour Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has just agreed to pay the French over half a billion pounds of our money, mostly unconditionally.

"The French authorities have repaid that by actively helping illegal immigrants cross the Channel.

"This is a shameful betrayal."

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has agreed to give Paris £500 million for an increase in police patrols, a new vessel to intercept migrant taxi boats, two helicopters, drones and a camera surveillance system.

And the Home Office will give the French another £160m to test new tactics to stop Channel migrant crossings. One of the proposals being tested is paying France to deport migrants on their coastline.

The revelations emerged during a BBC investigation into a suspected people smuggler.

A male migrant said: “We were much more safe because the French were looking after us.”

Another said: “Those people who drive the boat, when they went in the wrong direction, the French told us, go that way. They gave us a way to go.”

A female migrant said the French coastguard had stopped to provide fuel to the dinghy she was in and also corrected their course to the UK.

“When they stopped the boat to give petrol [sic], they stopped with us. They stopped and were waiting for us.

“When the boat moved, they moved with us.

“They showed the way, where to go, where to move.”

French police have repeatedly sparked anger after dishing out dozens of lifejackets to Channel migrants who successfully evade officers on notorious beaches.

Paris will receive £220 million this year as part of a desperate bid to prevent a Summer surge in arrivals.

The Home Office claimed the deal will lead to almost 1,100 police, intelligence and military officers being deployed in Northern France to track down migrants and snare smugglers.

This would be an increase of 40%, from almost 700 officers under Rishi Sunak’s deal with Emmanuel Macron, sources said.

And Paris has vowed to use a new maritime vessel – as well as 20 officers – to intercept more migrant taxi boats in the water. The French claimed they have stopped six of the vessels in the past two months.

A new unit of 50 specialist riot officers will also be deployed to the beaches amid fears over a surge in violence on the French coast.

This is despite France’s Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), which specialises in crowd control and maintaining public order, regularly being deployed to the beaches and standing by as migrants dash into the water.

The shocking allegations will also prompt fears there still no deterrent to those hoping to cross.

A staggering 96,002 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Eritrea have arrived in small boats between 2018 and 2025.

But only 495 - 0.5% - have been sent back to these countries in seven years.

New figures, obtained for the first time by the Daily Express, also reveal more small boat migrants have been returned to Ireland, 57, than Syria, 55 and Afghanistan, 16.

And the same number have been sent back to Somalia and Tunisia as the United States of America – all 3.

Just 108 of the 30,269 Iranians who arrived by dinghy have been deported to Iran and six to Eritrea between 2018 and 2025. Migration Observatory analysis shows 19,154 Eritreans have been detected leaving France.

And 365 of the 19,157 Iraqis have been removed.

Only seven of the 12,633 Sudanese migrants to have crossed the Channel have left.

The Home Office figures – obtained through Freedom of Information requests – also revealed 381 people have been booted out to Turkey between 2018 and 2025.

Another 116 have been sent to Germany, and 51 to Italy.

In total, immigration officials have returned small boat migrants to 67 countries.

This includes the United States of America, Dominica, Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.

Some 41 countries have taken fewer than 10 small boat migrants back.

Only three Somalias to have crossed the Channel by dinghy have been returned.