New Zealand defends strict Covid quarantine after pregnant journalist ‘had to turn to Taliban’ for help

The New Zealand government has defended its strict quarantine system known as MIQ after a pregnant New Zealand journalist said she had to turn to the Taliban for help after her requests to get back to her own country were rejected.

Charlotte Bellis discovered she was pregnant a short time after gaining international attention in 2021 for questioning Taliban leaders about their treatment of women and girls. She is due to give birth in May.

She resigned from Al Jazeera in November and had no choice but to leave Qatar, where sex outside marriage is illegal. She and her partner, Jim Huylebroek, moved to his native Belgium. But she could not stay long, she wrote in a column published in the New Zealand Herald on Saturday, because she was not a resident. She said the only other place the couple had visas to live was Afghanistan.

She said she had 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, said on Monday there were places in MIQ for people with special circumstances. "No one's saying there is not," he said.

"I understand she wanted to return on a specific date and that officials reached out to her for more information shortly after looking at her application. The emergency allocation criteria includes a requirement to travel to New Zealand within the next 14 days. Ms Bellis indicated she did not intend to travel until the end of February and has been encouraged by MIQ to consider moving her plans forward.

"I understand officials have also since invited her to apply for another emergency category. I encourage her to take these offers seriously.

"I also understand she was offered New Zealand consular assistance twice since she returned to Afghanistan in early December."

The emergency allocation criteria included pregnancy, he said. "This includes for medical treatment if a mother is overseas and cannot get the required treatment where they are, and allowing people to urgently return to New Zealand to provide critical care for a dependent, such as their spouse or partner who is pregnant."

Speaking to RNZ on Monday morning, Bellis said she signed up for an MIQ spot via the medical treatment pathway because it was how pregnant women were told to apply. She was then asked to reapply under a category designed for New Zealanders in a location or a situation where there was a serious risk to their safety, she said.

"What does that say to women, does that mean there is no pathway for pregnant women? We signed up to the right one, the medical treatment is the correct one."

She told RNZ the authorities had all the information but their application was met with "clauses and technicalities and confusion". "First it was 'we denied you because it's more than 14 days'. Then it was 'you don't meet a threshold for medical stuff', now it's something else. Why so many excuses and clauses? You have all the information."

New Zealand has managed to keep the spread of the virus to a minimum during the pandemic and has reported just 52 Covid deaths among its population of 5 million.

But the requirement that even returning citizens spend 10 days isolating in quarantine hotels run by the military has led to a backlog of thousands of people vying for spots.

Hipkins said the border framework had served New Zealand "exceptionally well" at keeping those within the country safe and preventing health services from becoming swamped. The government has signalled there will be changes at the border soon.