- Bellis says being denied entry by one’s own country “feels like such a breach of trust”.
- The Taliban told her she could give birth in Afghanistan with nowhere else to go.
- Says New Zealand officials said her rejected application was under review.
WELLINGTON: A pregnant New Zealand journalist who was denied return to her homeland to give birth said she had been given shelter by the Afghan Taliban instead.
“This just feels like such a breach of trust,” she said in an interview with Radio New Zealand on Sunday (January 30).
Mrs. Charlotte Bellis worked for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, where her photographer partner Jim Huylebroek is also based.
But she didn’t realize she was pregnant until she returned to Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
It is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried in Qatar, so Bellis kept the pregnancy a secret as she prepared to return to New Zealand.
When told she was not eligible for an exemption under New Zealand’s strict COVID-19 enforced border controls and with Afghanistan the only other place she and Mr Huylebroek had a visa to live, Ms Bellis said that she had called senior Taliban contacts and was told she could give birth there.
“We’re happy for you, you can come and you won’t have a problem,” Bellis told her in an interview with the New Zealand Herald.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine,” she added, they said.
“In my time of need, the New Zealand government said you are not welcome here.
“When the Taliban offer you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – a safe haven, you know your situation is confused.”
After making her situation public and engaging lawyers, Ms Bellis said she had been contacted by New Zealand officials who said her rejected application was pending.
Chris Hipkins, the government’s Covid-19 response minister, said he had asked officials to check that proper procedures had been followed in Ms Bellis’s case, “which at first glance seemed to warrant further explanations”.
