The first 46 asylum seekers have arrived at a former RAF airbase in Essex as it is brought into use.The arrivals on Wednesday at Wethersfield Airfield, around eight miles from Braintree, are people who were brought to a processing facility in Kent over the weekend from small boat crossings.Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation for the Home Office, said the site at Wethersfield will be "fully functional" by autumn with up to 1,700 single adult men there.Speaking at the site on Wednesday

The first 46 asylum seekers have arrived at a former RAF airbase in Essex as it is brought into use.The arrivals on Wednesday at Wethersfield Airfield, around eight miles from Braintree, are people who were brought to a processing facility in Kent over the weekend from small boat crossings.Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation for the Home Office, said the site at Wethersfield will be "fully functional" by autumn with up to 1,700 single adult men there.Speaking at the site on Wednesday, she said: "We've got about 50 people arriving today from various locations, but they arrived at our facility in Kent at the weekend on small boats."She said that when asylum seekers arrive at the processing facility in Kent they are screened, with biometric and health testing, and assessed for suitability for the Wethersfield site.She said the cohort at Wethersfield will be single adult men and after Wednesday's arrival of the first 50 people the Home Office will "ramp up".