Pregnant New Zealand journalist in Afghanistan is not allowed to return home and is forced to seek help from Taliban | Abroad

Bellis traveled to Afghanistan in August as a reporter for the media company Al Jazeera. There, she questioned the Taliban during their first press conference about how they treat girls and women in Afghanistan. According to the journalist, it is therefore “terribly ironic” that she now has to ask the same question to her own government.

New Zealand has had a very strict corona policy for some time now. Anyone wishing to return from abroad must be quarantined for ten days in a shelter run by the military. However, there are far too few places in the center, so the waiting list is very long. Many New Zealanders are currently stranded abroad for this reason, some in dire circumstances. The pregnant Bellis also immediately ended up on a waiting list.

In her open letter, Bellis says that she had returned to Qatar in September. There she discovered she was pregnant by her Belgian partner Jim Huylebroek, a photographer who works for The New York Times. She describes the pregnancy as “a miracle” because doctors had previously told Bellis she was infertile. However, the journalist could not stay in Qatar. It is illegal to become pregnant without being married.

Bellis retired from Al Jazeera in November and moved to Belgium with her boyfriend. However, since she was not a permanent resident, she could not stay long in our country either. Meanwhile, efforts to get permission from New Zealand’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) service continued, but without any success. According to Bellis, the couple only had visas to live in Afghanistan.

For that reason, the journalist spoke with some Taliban contacts. They assured her that she could come to Afghanistan safely as long as she claimed to be married. “If it escalates, call us,” the Taliban told her. The journalist is said to have sent no fewer than 59 documents to the New Zealand authorities in Afghanistan, but they always rejected her request for an emergency return.

According to Chris Bunny, the head of MIQ, Bellis’s application initially did not meet the conditions. He allegedly informed the woman that she had to make a new application that did meet the rules. “That’s not uncommon and it’s an example of how we try to be helpful to New Zealanders who find themselves in difficult situations,” said Bunny.

Giving birth in Afghanistan, where the health care system is collapsing and where maternal and child care also leaves something to be desired, Bellis does not like. Currently, however, there seems to be some progress in her case again. That’s because Bellis announced that she would hire lawyers and come out with her story. According to New Zealand corona minister Chris Hipkins, the applications of the reporter and her boyfriend are being reconsidered, although the journalist has not yet received official permission to return home.