About 8,400 people, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, live in small tents there

Greek authorities began an operation at dawn on Tuesday to gradually evacuate the country's largest informal refugee camp of Idomeni on the Macedonian border, blocking access to the area and sending in more than 400 riot police.

The government's spokesman for the refugee crisis, Giorgos Kyritsis, said on Monday that police would not use force, and that the operation was expected to last about a week to 10 days.