Ambassador in limbo makes plea for Afghans to be allowed into EU

Former Afghan government's ambassador in Greece appalled by Athens' media blitz against illegal migrant flows'

In other times, Mirwais Samadi would have welcomed a campaign to deter his compatriots from opting to become illegal migrants and embarking on the often dangerous trek from Afghanistan to Europe.

By far the worst part of his job as Afghanistan's ambassador to Athens - apart from the strange limbo he has found himself in representing a nation whose leaders he refuses to recognise - is notifying families back home of loved ones who died along the way. Invariably they are the victims of smuggling networks motivated solely by profit.