Jan 30, 2022: According to an AFP report, a pregnant New Zealand journalist has been refused to re-entry to her home country due to the strict rules of Covid-19 and said that she has been offered asylum by the Afghan Taliban.
“It just feels like a breach of trust,” Charlotte Bellis told Radio New Zealand from Kabul on Sunday. Bellis was working for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, but she said she did not realize she was pregnant until she was at the media company’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Being pregnant and unmarried is illegal in Qatar, so Bellis kept her pregnancy a secret as she prepared to return to New Zealand.
Stating that she was not eligible for exemption under New Zealand’s strict covert border control, Bellis said she had called senior Taliban contacts and was told she could give birth there. “We are happy for you, you can come and you will not have any problem,” they assured her. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine,”
She recalled this while talking to the New Zealand Herald. “In my time of need, the New Zealand government has said you are not welcome here. “When the Taliban offer you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up.”
Bellis, who once asked the Taliban what they would do to ensure the rights of women and girls, said it was “brutal irony” that she was now asking her government the same question. After going public about his situation, and involving lawyers, Bellis said he had been approached by New Zealand authorities who said her rejected application was under consideration.
The government’s Covid Response Minister, Chris Hopkins, said in a statement that he had asked officials to check whether appropriate procedures had been followed in the Bellis’ case, “which appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation”.
In the face of a fresh outbreak of covid-19 cases from the omicron variant, New Zealand recently scrapped plans to ease entry for returning nationals and instead closed its borders, except for emergency cases, to anyone without an existing quarantine booking.
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