A pregnant New Zealand journalist who covered the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban is speaking out about how the Islamist group, which is widely criticized for its treatment of women, offered her a helping hand when she needed a place to stay after her home country rejected her entry.
Charlotte Bellis, a Christchurch native who was deployed to Afghanistan by Al Jazeera, wrote a column published in the New Zealand Herald that said she returned to her base in Doha, Qatar, in September, after which she realized she was pregnant. Since it is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried in Qatar, she scrambled to find a place to stay until she was able to receive a spot in New Zealand‘s Managed Isolation and Quarantine program, which helps its citizens abroad return to the country and isolate safely due to the risk of COVID-19.
Bellis said she resigned from her position with Al Jazeera and was able to stay in Belgium, the home country of her partner, photojournalist Jim Huylebroek, for three months. But she had been forced to find another country in which to stay until she was able to return to New Zealand, as foreigners are only able to stay in Belgium for three out of every six months, and she had exhausted her time limit. Bellis, who said she expects to give birth in March, opened up about how, out of desperation, she reached out to the Taliban.
“You know how I am dating Jim from The New York Times, but we’re not married, right?” she asked Taliban contacts during a meeting at the end of January.
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Bellis says she told Taliban officials, “I am pregnant, and I can’t get back into New Zealand. If I come to Kabul, will we have a problem?”
The Taliban responded by saying they respected the couple and that as “they are foreigners,” it was up to them. “No, we’re happy for you. You can come, and you won’t have a problem. Just tell people you’re married, and if it escalates, call us,” she recalled the Taliban telling her. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Bellis wrote, “When the Taliban offers you — a pregnant, unmarried woman — safe haven, you know your situation is messed up.”
Bellis says after receiving help from the Taliban, she learned that New Zealand had pushed back its plan to loosen border restrictions until February over concerns of the omicron variant of COVID-19. As she was now out of options, the only other way into the country was through MIQ.
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The couple hired a lawyer, Tudor Clee, who agreed to represent the couple on a pro bono basis, Bellis wrote. After attaching records of their COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, bank statements, and Bellis’s letter of resignation, she said they received an email Jan. 24 that said their application for an emergency MIQ spot had been denied.
The couple was told their application for MIQ had been denied for several reasons, including that they had not provided “any evidence” of having scheduled a medical procedure in New Zealand, that it is “time-critical,” and that “you cannot obtain or access the same treatment in your current location.”
Bellis and Huylebroek had also picked travel dates that had been more than 14 days away, which apparently was a problem.
The couple decided to fight the decision, raising awareness of their situation. Two days after the denial, they received an email that said their application for an “emergency allocation” was being reviewed. A day later, Huylebroek was notified that his visa application had been approved and that he could apply for an emergency MIQ position.
The column featured a number of responses from New Zealand officials.
“A senior National Party MP contacted me on Wednesday with information about this case and the circumstances about their declined application, which appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation,” COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said, adding that his office had “passed this information” along to officials to check.
Chris Bunny, the head of MIQ, said, “It is not uncommon for people who have been declined an emergency allocation to reach out to a Member of Parliament.” He added, “There are a lot of people in really difficult situations around the world. When anyone brings individual cases to our attention, we look into the case and the process that was followed.”
Bellis says she sobbed when the couple received the rejection notice, and even though things are looking up now after what her lawyer claimed to be an unprecedented turnaround by the government, she wrapped up her column talking about how she was made to feel unwelcome in her own country and spoke for other people who reached out to say they, too, are hitting a wall in trying to come home.
“Should I be grateful that we appear to be getting preferential treatment and our case progressing after Minister Hipkins’s office heard of an incoming political headache? I imagine them saying, ‘Just make it go away, give them the spots,'” Bellis said. “I am not the first to experience such scapegoating of liability.”
She concluded, “I thought, ‘We are so much better than this.’ I thought back to August and how brutally ironic it was that I had asked the Taliban what they would do to ensure the rights of women and girls. And now, I am asking the same question of my own government.”
