Pregnant New Zealand reporter turns to Taliban for help after being denied re-entry to home country

Charlotte Bellis's Taliban contacts have assured her of her safety in Afghanistan.

Matthias Ang | January 31, 2022, 02:47 PM

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A pregnant New Zealand reporter, Charlotte Bellis, has returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, with her partner after being denied re-entry into her home country, the New Zealand Herald reported.

In a letter published by the outlet on January 29, Bellis said that she had to take the extraordinary step of asking the Taliban for help earlier in the month after repeatedly failing to secure a spot for her re-entry into New Zealand through its Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) scheme.

How did she end up in this situation?

Failed repeatedly to get a slot in New Zealand's re-entry scheme for citizens

According to Bellis, she had been deployed to Afghanistan by her former employer, Qatar-based media outlet Al-Jazeera, where she covered the Taliban's takeover of the country in August 2021.

Her partner was also in Kabul at this time as a photographer for the New York Times.

Upon returning to Doha, Qatar, in September, Bellis discovered that she was pregnant.

When told by her doctor that it is illegal to be unmarried and pregnant in Qatar, Bellis started attempting to return to New Zealand through the MIQ scheme which utilises a lottery-style system for returning citizens.

However, she failed repeatedly.

Eventually, she resigned from her job in Aljazeera in November and moved to her partner's native country of Belgium.

However, her New Zealand passport meant that she could only spend a limited amount of time in Belgium.

Turned to asking the Taliban for help, returned to Kabul

Bellis then wrote that the only other place which the couple had visas to live was in Afghanistan.

She reached out to senior Taliban contacts who assured her in response that there would be no problems if she returned to Kabul, even though she was not married to her partner.

Bellis quoted the Taliban as saying:

"No we're happy for you, you can come and you won't have a problem. Just tell people you're married and if it escalates, call us. Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

She then added, "When the Taliban offers you - a pregnant, unmarried woman - safe haven, you know your situation is messed up."

On January 13, 2022, Bellis tweeted the following encounter that she had with an armed Taliban member, following their return to Afghanistan, who passed the couple his number and told them to call him in the event of the need for assistance.

Bellis also thanked Afghans who had reached out to her offering their help and praised them for their kindness in Instagram stories which she put up on January 30.

Screenshot from Charlotte Bellis Instagram

Screenshot from Charlotte Bellis Instagram

Situation exacerbated by suspension of re-entry lottery system, rejection of emergency application

Bellis wrote that her situation was exacerbated when, on Janaury 18, MIQ announced that it was suspending the next lottery round in light of rising Omicron cases.

As for the reopening of the country's borders, Bloomberg reported that it will be done in a phased manner, starting from the end of February.

"There was no way home other than to apply for emergency MIQ spots", she wrote.

As such, Bellis and her partner turned to submitting an emergency application for a re-entry spot under the MIQ

She highlighted that between herself and her partner, they had submitted 59 documents to MIQ and New Zealand immigration authorities, including ultrasounds, vaccination status, evidence of Bellis' resignation, as well as a cover letter written by their lawyer summarising their situation.

Her application was rejected on January 24.

She concluded, "I thought back to August, and how brutally ironic it was, that I had asked the Taliban what they would do to ensure the rights of women and girls. And now, I am asking the same question of my own Government."

What is the response of the New Zealand government?

In response to Bellis' letter in the New Zealand Herald, Chris Bunny, the head of MIQ said that her emergency application was rejected as the date that she had requested (February 27) was not within the 14-day window required for an emergency application.

Bunny elaborated:

"She received a response deactivating the application and inviting her to reapply within the 14 day window, and to contact MIQ if she intended to change her flights to return to New Zealand earlier. We have not received any subsequent confirmation that Ms Bellis intends to bring her flights forward."

On January 31, Bellis tweeted that she had received the following reply regarding her latest which stated that she should re-apply and submit new information.

She also shared a photo of her response, noting her lack of access to time-critical medical services in Afghanistan.

According to an article by the BBC in December, hospitals in Afghanistan are overloaded with many women delivering malnourished, premature babies as a result of famine stemming from drought and economic collapse.

The Taliban have since blamed hunger on the drought and said that it comes from God, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The regime's Prime Minister, Mullah Hassan Akhund, was quoted as saying:

"Remember, the Emirate had not promised you the provision of food. The Emirate has kept its promises. It is God who has promised his creatures the provision of food."

The decision by the U.S. to halt aid to the country and freeze billions in funds for Afghanistan is also a major driver of poverty and famine, Vox reported.

Prior to the country's fall to the Taliban, Afghanistan's economy was heavily reliant on foreign aid which dried up once the Taliban took over.

The U.S. also froze most of the US$9.4 billion (S$12.7 billion) in Afghan currency reserves in Afghanistan's central bank in August 2021.

This has essentially cut the country off from foreign banks and prevented the Central Bank of Afghanistan from accessing its reserves to shore up the cash flow.

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