New Zealand has managed to keep the spread of the virus to a minimum during the pandemic and has reported just 52 virus deaths among its population of 5 million.

But the nation’s requirement that even returning citizens spend 10 days isolating in quarantine hotels run by the military has led to a backlog of thousands of people wanting to return home vying for spots.

Stories of citizens stranded abroad in dire circumstances have caused embarrassment for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government, but Bellis’s situation is particularly striking.

Last year, she was working for Al Jazeera covering the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan when she gained international attention by questioning Taliban leaders about their treatment of women and girls.

In her column Saturday, Bellis said she returned to Qatar in September and discovered she was pregnant with her partner, freelance photographer Jim Huylebroek, a contributor to The New York Times.

She described the pregnancy as a miracle after earlier being told by doctors she couldn’t have children. She is due to give birth to a girl in May.

Extramarital sex is illegal in Qatar and Bellis said she realised she needed to leave. She repeatedly tried to get back to New Zealand in a lottery-style system for returning citizens but without success.

She said she resigned from Al Jazeera in November and the couple moved to Huylebroek’s native Belgium. But she couldn’t stay long, she said, because she wasn’t a resident. She said the only other place the couple had visas to live was Afghanistan.

Bellis said she spoke with senior Taliban contacts who told her she would be fine if she returned to Afghanistan.

Just tell people you’re married and if it escalates, call us. Don’t worry, Bellis said they told her.

She said she sent 59 documents to New Zealand authorities in Afghanistan but they rejected her application for an emergency return.

Chris Bunny, the joint head of New Zealand’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine system, told the Herald that Bellis’s emergency application didn’t fit a requirement that she travel within 14 days.

He said staff had reached out to Bellis about making another application that would fit within the requirements.

This is not uncommon and is an example of the team being helpful to New Zealanders who are in distressing situations, Bunny wrote.