New Zealand’s response to pregnant reporter trapped in Afghanistan due to Covid restrictions

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A pregnant New Zealand journalist stranded in Afghanistan has ramped up her desperate fight to be allowed to return home to give birth.

Charlotte Bellis has repeatedly tried to return to home since she learned she was pregnant in September but had her application rejected twice due to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern‘s closed border.

With her third trimester fast approaching, she applied under category 1A(i) which applies to Kiwis requiring access to time-critical medical treatment unavailable or inaccessible at their location.

Ms Bellis had her application reviewed again by Managed Isolation and Quarantine authorities on Sunday after going public, and was advised that ‘more information is required before a decision can be made’.

She replied insisting she provided everything required and requested a justification for why she should not get an exemption if it was refused.

‘I received a letter from a generic MIQ email address suggesting I apply via a different category for an emergency spot to return to New Zealand to give birth,’ Ms Bellis tweeted on Monday.

She shared a screenshot of the generic email from the quarantine agency requesting more information to ensure ‘a fair and consistent process’.

The email also stated her original application was deactivated last week as the proposed travel dates weren’t within the 14 day window.

Ms Bellis said she chose travel dates outside the window due to a scarcity of flights out of Kabul and to ‘give us time to appeal if we were rejected’.  

The email suggests Ms Bellis apply under category 1A (iii), which applies to citizens and residents ‘who are in a location or situation where there is a serious risk to their safety and their only option is to return to New Zealand, taking into account advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade where relevant’.

Ms Bellis would also have to provide confirmation that returning to New Zealand is the only option.

She has since replied to the email, claiming applying under the category suggested by authorities does not ‘presently apply to us’.

‘The cause for return continues to be the need for time-critical medical treatment which is unavailable or inaccessible in our current location,’ Ms Bellis wrote.

‘You have all of our information. You know our situation. I want it on the record there is no change to our circumstances, no new evidence or information you have received.’

‘If you’re not approving us under the category of 1A(i), please provide your justification.’

Ms Bellis argued that applying outside 14-day travel window under category of 1A(i) was permitted under the MIQ guidelines and that they would have to provide more evidence on top of 59 documents already submitted if they did reapply.

She also cited MIQ boss Chris Bunny, who told the New Zealand Herald on Saturday that pregnant women can apply under category 1A(i).

Prime Minister Ardern is yet to comment on Ms Bellis’ plight and is in self-isolation after she was declared a close contact of a Covid case. She has tested negative so far and will stay in isolation until Wednesday. 

New Zealand recorded 91 locally acquired cases on Monday. More than two thirds of the latest infections were diagnosed in Auckland.

Ms Bellis has been been flooded with online support for her efforts to return home, and was thanked for speaking out and urged by fellow Kiwis to continue the fight.

‘Please continue to fight for everyone that doesn’t have your profile. You are highlighting the absurdity and cruelty of the MIQ system, with multiple loopholes for the ultra wealthy, citizens or not,’ one commented.

Another added: ‘Many of us know people stuck overseas being treated in such a cruel way but we don’t have the means to bring it attention. Thank you.’

One urged Ms Bellis consider applying under the different category suggested by the quarantine agency.

‘Please take the olive branch that they are attempting to extend and look after yourself and baby by jumping through their suggested amended hoops ASAP,’ one wrote.

‘You can continue to highlight the absurdity and cruelty of the rules once you are safely home.’

Ms Bellis has submitted 59 documents to New Zealand officials and answered numerous questions in an attempt to secure an emergency return home.

‘This just feels like such a breach of trust,’ Ms Bellis told Radio New Zealand from Kabul on Sunday.

The denied applications led her to turn to the Taliban, one of the world’s most oppressive regimes, and was told she could give birth there.

‘We’re happy for you, you can come and you won’t have a problem,’ Bellis said the Taliban told her, despite their view on unmarried mothers.

Ms Bellis also hasn’t ruled out relocating to Belgium, the birthplace of her partner. 

It’s a particularly cruel twist of fate for the woman who was revered worldwide for her fearless questioning of the jihadist group’s record on women’s rights.

To add insult to injury, Ms Bellis warned pregnancy could be a death sentence in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan because of the poor state of maternity care and lack of surgical capabilities.  

‘To the NZ Government, I ask what do you want me to do? I have done nothing wrong I got pregnant and I am a New Zealander,’ she told News1.

‘At what point did we get so bogged down in these rules we’ve come up with that we can’t see that she’s a Kiwi in need of help and she needs to come home?’ 

Although the spread of Covid-19 has been limited in New Zealand and just 52 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic, the nation still requires citizens to spend 10 days in isolation hotels run by the military.

The ‘zero-Covid’ policy has repeatedly come under fire and the strict self-isolation restrictions have now caused a backlog of thousands of people desperate to return home.

Ms Bellis has become one of the most high-profile Kiwis to fall victim to New Zealand’s extreme border controls. 

Writing in the New Zealand Herald on Saturday, Ms Bellis said it was ‘brutally ironic’ that while she had once questioned the Taliban about their treatment of women, she was now asking the same questions of her own government. 

‘When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up,’ she wrote. 

New Zealand’s borders have been shut to foreigners since March 2020. 

The government pushed back plans for a phased reopening from mid-January to the end of February out of concern about a potential Omicron outbreak, as in neighbouring Australia.

New Zealand has reported 15,910 confirmed coronavirus cases and 52 deaths among its population of five million. 

Stories of citizens stranded abroad in dire circumstances have caused embarrassment for Ms Ardern and her government, but Ms Bellis’s situation is particularly striking.

Last year, Bellis was working for Al Jazeera covering the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan when she gained international attention by questioning Taliban leaders about their treatment of women and girls.

In her column on Saturday, she said she returned to Qatar in September and discovered she was expecting a baby with her partner, freelance photographer Jim Huylebroek, who is a contributor to the New York Times.

She described the pregnancy as a ‘miracle’ after earlier being told by doctors she could not have children. She is due to give birth to a girl in May.

Pre-marital sex is illegal in Qatar and Ms Bellis said she realised she needed to leave. 

She repeatedly tried to get back to New Zealand in a lottery-style system for returning citizens but without success.

She said she resigned from Al Jazeera in November and the couple moved to Mr Huylebroek’s native Belgium, but she could not stay long because she was not a resident.

The only other place the couple had visas to live was Afghanistan.

Ms Bellis said she spoke with senior Taliban contacts who told her she would be fine if she returned to Afghanistan.

‘Just tell people you’re married and if it escalates, call us. Don’t worry,’ she said they told her.

She said she sent 59 documents to New Zealand authorities in Afghanistan but they rejected her application for an emergency return.

New Zealand’s Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins told the Herald his office had asked officials to check whether they followed the proper procedures in Ms Bellis’s case, ‘which appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation’. 

Chris Bunny, the joint head of New Zealand’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine system, told the Herald that Ms Bellis’s emergency application did not fit a requirement that she travel within 14 days.

He said staff had contacted her about making another application that would fit the requirements.

‘This is not uncommon and is an example of the team being helpful to New Zealanders who are in distressing situations,’ he wrote.

Ms Bellis said pregnancy can be a death sentence in Afghanistan because of the poor state of maternity care and lack of surgical capabilities.

She added that after talking to lawyers, politicians and public relations people in New Zealand, her case seems to be moving forward, although she has yet to be approved passage home.

Ms Ardern further tightened restrictions under the country’s Covid Red Alert system, meaning a return to universal mask-wearing and stricter quarantine requirements for New Zealanders.

The PM rolled out the restrictions after just nine cases of the Omicron variant were detected in a single family that flew to Auckland for a wedding earlier this month.

Under limits incurred by New Zealand’s My Vaccine Pass, those who are unvaccinated will be unable to eat at indoor restaurants or visit gyms or hairdressers. 

Any Kiwis working in health and disability, education, fire and emergency, police, defence, and corrections must be able to show proof of having vaccines. 

From February 3, the wearing of bandanas, scarves or t-shirts pulled over the nose in public places such as gyms and cafes will be banned. 

And under new Covid curbs enforced by Ardern, all residents must wear face masks in public areas such as shops and there are limits on gatherings to a maximum of 100 people from Monday after a cluster of Omicron cases were detected in the country. 

The changes mean Ardern was forced to postpone her own wedding. 

Anyone testing positive must now isolate for 14 instead of ten days – and household contacts have to isolate for an additional ten days on top, leaving them to stay indoors for 24 days.  

Ardern has faced a slew of criticism from campaigners and members of the public after imposing strict Covid curbs since the start of the pandemic.

International borders were promptly closed on March 19, 2020, with a nationwide lockdown enforced on March 25 after 102 cases, and no deaths, were recorded in the country.

Almost three months later on June 8, the PM announced there had been no new community transmissions within the past fortnight and says she is ‘confident New Zealand has eliminated community transmission of Covid’.

But within two months, Auckland was placed under strict lockdown measures after just four new cases were recorded in the city area. 

A draconian ‘zero-Covid’ goal was implemented across the country, with New Zealand aiming to completely eradicate the virus from its shores.

But this policy was met with ridicule as the Delta variant ripped through the world in the summer of 2021, prompting a return to multiple weeks of lockdown for Auckland’s 1.7 million residents. 

Critics slammed the return of draconian curbs on everyday life, pointing to the fact other countries have started to reopen despite reporting thousands of new cases.