New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who is pregnant, has had a publicised battle in her bid to get an emergency MIQ room.
On Saturday, Bellis, who is formerly Al Jazeera's Afghanistan reporter, wrote an open letter in the NZ Herald saying that after failing to get a MIQ spot through the lottery she has nowhere else to legally go except Afghanistan - an unsafe place to give birth due to the country's healthcare crisis.
With her birth date nearing, she applied for an emergency MIQ spot under the category that she "requires access to time-critical medical treatment" because she's pregnant - but received a rejection letter on January 24. Among the reasons given were that she and her partner's travel dates were more than 14 days away and she did not provide evidence she had scheduled medical treatment in New Zealand.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) then said Bellis could apply as someone whose safety is seriously at risk, instead of someone requiring access to time-critical medical treatment.
Bellis rejected MBIE's offer since it doesn't apply to her, as her safety was specifically guaranteed by the Taliban.
"The cause for my return continues to be time-critical medical treatment that is unavailable or inaccessible in our current location. You have all our information. You know our situation," she wrote in a letter in response to MBIE.
Her situation has prompted outrage about MIQ's strictness, including from ACT leader David Seymour who says MIQ should be dumped now.
"Bellis is far from the only case. The cruelty of MIQ has created many like hers. The absurdity of the Taliban being more humane than the New Zealand Government puts the policy in stark relief though," he says.
"The humane and rational response of the Government would be to dump MIQ now. It doesn't work, ties up valuable resources, and is unimaginably cruel."
But COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins is urging people not to "lose sight of the reason MIQ was set up" following Bellis' MIQ rejection.
"While MIQ has had to make some difficult choices, I don't want us to lose sight of the reason MIQ was set up in the first place," he says.
"It has served New Zealand exceptionally well, saved lives and hospital admissions and kept our health system from being swamped, unlike the situation in many other countries."
What do you think? Should the government grant Charlotte Bellis an emergency MIQ room allocation for her pregnancy?
This poll has now closed.
Disclaimer: This straw poll is not scientific and closes after 1 hour.
