Pregnant Kiwi journalist Charlotte Bellis offered asylum by second country

Charlotte Bellis is pregnant and stuck in Afghanistan after being refused an emergency spot. Photo / Jim Huylebroek

Pregnant Kiwi journalist Charlotte Bellis has been offered asylum by another country since going public about her struggle to secure an MIQ spot so she can return to New Zealand to give birth.

Speaking to RNZ overnight from Kabul, she did not name the country but said it was sad her own was stopping her from coming home.

“It’s really sad. I’ve been so proud for so long of being a New Zealander, at the beginning of the pandemic,” she said.

“We look after each other, we’re empathetic, we get stuff done. It just feels like such a breach of trust. I’m one of your people, and I need help.”

Bellis’s pregnancy was going well. “I can feel her kicking, so that’s exciting,” she told RNZ.

“And we haven’t really had any major issues along the way.”

Bellis’ friend and PR agent Gemma Ross confirmed a second country – not Afghanistan – had offered asylum.

“There’s been some outreach, but we’ve been asked to keep it confidential at this point,” Ross told the Herald.

She also said the journalist had been inundated with messages and offers of help from around the world since going public with her story, but they had not heard anything from the New Zealand Government.

It’s understood others Kiwis have offered their MIQ vouchers to Bellis, but this is not allowed under current MIQ rules.

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A Christchurch native and former journalist at Al Jazeera, Bellis made international headlines reporting from Kabul on the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year.

In September, she found out she was pregnant back home in Doha, Qatar. It is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried in the Muslim country.

Her partner Jim Huylebroek, a photographer for The New York Times, was in Kabul.

Unable to get to New Zealand through the MIQ system, they went to Huylebroek’s home country Belgium, from where Bellis repeatedly tried to get an MIQ spot but failed in the lottery.

They were relieved when the Government announced MIQ would end for New Zealanders in February, and foreigners in April, meaning they could both get back in time for the birth in May.

Bellis then took the extraordinary step of contacting the Taliban to see if she could return safely to Afghanistan. Senior Taliban contacts said yes, and she has been in Kabul ever since.

With New Zealand’s border reopening delayed, she applied for an emergency MIQ spot but was rejected on January 24.

“We had submitted 59 documents to Immigration New Zealand and MIQ, from ultrasounds proving due date to a letter from the obstetrician talking about the consequences of stress on a pregnant woman and her baby. You name it, bank statements, proof of my resignation and that I had to leave Qatar, I had it all,” she told RNZ.

Head of MIQ Chris Bunny has said the process is “fair and consistent”, and while the application was initially rejected the team stayed in touch with Bellis to offer assistance about a new application.