Covid-19: Pregnant journalist on battle to get into MIQ - a podcast by RNZ

Pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis says she could have kept quiet about her predicament but felt "infuriated" after failing to gain an MIQ spot and seeking refuge in Afghanistan.
She says many other pregnant New Zealanders deserve to come home and she's speaking up.
Bellis told Morning Report it was frustrating watching others get places in MIQ when she was unable to.
"New Zealand citizens are having to fight so hard and jump through various clauses and provide X amount of evidence and apply seven times and go to court, and at the same time, you've got DJs and athletes and TV crews coming in."
Bellis said the decision to go to Afghanistan was tough, but she was in Qatar when she found out she was pregnant, and the country has a law against unmarried people having children.
Going to other countries would have been a challenge due to visas and the poor quality of Afghanistan's maternal health care means Bellis does not want to stay there.
She said watching New Zealand handle the pandemic from overseas made her proud, but she believed it should not be this difficult to make it home and that played into her decision to go public.
"I've been so proud and a huge advocate of MIQ, the questions that I'm raising now, if you're negative, and boosted, and a dangerous situation abroad, you have to fight as hard as we're fighting to try to get on a plane."
Bellis said she's been asked to re-apply to enter New Zealand under a new category, a serious risk to safety.

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