Pregnant journalist stranded in Afghanistan receives approval to return to New Zealand

The journalist also said that she and her partner are "disappointed it had to come to this".

Karen Lui | February 01, 2022, 05:22 PM

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Charlotte Bellis, a pregnant journalist who was unable to return home due to Covid-19 restrictions, finally received approval to go back to New Zealand on Feb. 1.

After repeatedly failing to secure a spot for her re-entry into New Zealand through its Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) scheme, Bellis resorted to approaching the Taliban for help in January 2022.

Received re-entry approval overnight

On Feb. 1, Bellis posted a statement on her Instagram page, saying that she and her partner received approval of her re-activated emergency MIQ application.

She expressed her gratitude to New Zealanders for their "overwhelming support", "kind words and encouragement".

The journalist also said that they are "disappointed it had to come to this".

She will continue to speak out and seek a solution to border controls to "keep New Zealanders at home and abroad safe and their rights respected", she added.

She explained that their re-entry approval was not granted on the basis of medical needs but on the risk factor of their location.

"We were denied based on medical needs because MIQ assessed we had no supporting information of a need for time-critical, scheduled treatment. Unfortunately, the government fails to recognise that a birth is not a scheduled event."

She emphasised the lack of a pathway for other pregnant New Zealand citizens to rightfully give birth in their home country.

Check out her full post here:

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Charlotte Bellis (@charlottebellis)

In the afternoon of Feb. 1, New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson revealed the MIQ place and flight arrangements for Bellis have "been communicated to her today", the New Zealand Herald reported.

On Jan. 31, Bellis' lawyer, Tudor Clee, said New Zealand's Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins had shared Bellis' private information in a statement and they were considering legal options, to which Hipkins declined to comment.

Background

Repeatedly failed to secure re-entry approval via lottery-style system

According to Bellis, was 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 Al-Jazeera in November and moved to Belgium, her partner's native country. However, her New Zealand passport only allowed her to spend a limited amount of time in Belgium.

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

Approached Taliban for assistance

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

On Jan. 13, 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.

Suspension of next MIQ lottery round due to Omicron

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

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.

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.

However, her application was rejected on Jan. 24.

New Zealand government's response

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 (Feb. 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."

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Top images via @charlottebellis on Instagram.