New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who is pregnant and trying to get home from Afghanistan, has been offered a place in hotel quarantine.
"There is a secured place for her with a flight arrangement alongside it that has been communicated to her today," New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said after a cabinet meeting.
"I urge her to take it up."
In response, Bellis issued a statement, saying: "I will be returning to my home country New Zealand at the beginning of March to give birth to our baby girl."
"We want to thank New Zealanders for their overwhelming support. It has been stressful and your kind words and encouragement helped Jim and I immensely.
"We are disappointed it had to come to this."
Bellis had entered the controversial lottery system, which allocates rooms in New Zealand's hotel quarantine system, but was unable to secure a room.
She then applied for an emergency allocation but her original application was closed due to the timing of her intended travel.
Bellis wrote about her situation in the New Zealand Herald, and her plight gained global media attention.
On Tuesday, the New Zealand government denied suggestions it had granted her a place because of the international media attention.
Mr Robertson said department staff were dealing with emergency requests on a daily basis.
"They always try to make contact with people and try to make arrangements that work," Mr Robertson said.
"That has been consistently what they have been doing over the last couple of weeks to support Ms Bellis through the application process.
"And in each circumstance … the specific set of circumstances the person faces is taken into account and in that regard, Ms Bellis is no different."
Bellis, 35, is expecting her first child with her partner, freelance photographer Jim Huylebroek, a Belgium native who has lived in Afghanistan for two years.
She had been based in Doha, Qatar, where she worked for state-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera.
However, after learning she was pregnant, she resigned in November 2021 and left the country because pre-marital sex is a criminal offence in the conservative, Muslim-majority country.
"When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to get out as soon as possible," she told the ABC yesterday.
Bellis's lawyer claims he is representing up to 30 pregnant women who are trying to get home to New Zealand.
In her statement, Bellis said her approval to travel home "was not granted on the basis of medical needs, but on the risk factor of our location".
"We were denied based on medical needs because MIQ (managed isolation and quarantine) assessed we had no supporting information of a need for time-critical, scheduled treatment," she wrote.
"Unfortunately, the government fails to recognise that a birth is not a scheduled event.
Earlier, when asked about other pregnant New Zealanders trying to get home, the Deputy Prime Minister said the circumstances of Bellis's approval were special.
"I don't think I'd accept people are necessarily in the same situation, there are special circumstances for Ms Bellis that have been taken into account," he said.
Lottery to be challenged in court
Bellis is one of tens of thousands of Kiwis unable to secure a place in the country's hotel system and return home.
Unlike Australia, the rooms are not automatically allocated when flights are booked.
New Zealanders desperate to return home are forced to enter a lottery, a system that has recently come under intense public scrutiny.
In 2022, there has only been one lottery, meaning the applications for emergency places in hotel quarantine have become the only avenue for most New Zealanders trying to return home.
New Zealand has a Bill of Rights that says every citizen should be allowed in and the group Grounded Kiwis is alleging that right has been breached by the country's COVID border policies.
On February 14, the group's application for a judicial review of the policies will be heard in New Zealand's High Court.
The New Zealand government pushed back a planned move to home isolation for international arrivals and is yet to announce a new date.
On Tuesday, Mr Robertson flagged Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would make a speech about "New Zealand's plan to reconnect with the world" later this week.
Alexandra Birt from Grounded Kiwis said her community was nervous.
"While everyone is looking forward to the announcement on Thursday, there is also nervous anticipation in terms of what that announcement is going to be," she said.
"Will people be required to enter lotteries in the future? Will they be able to self-isolate? Can people make plans in terms of returning?
"And there's a sense in our community that they don't want to hang their hats on what's announced on Thursday, because what's to say it isn't going to change again in a couple of weeks?"
