Leftist New Zealand Announces Potential Border Opening After Taliban Helps Abandoned Pregnant Kiwi

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday that her country would begin reopening its borders at the end of February, capping an embarrassing week in which a pregnant Kiwi journalist stranded outside the country turned to the Taliban for assistance.

“With omicron’s arrival, we pushed that change in border settings out – to give ourselves the chance to roll out boosters – a chance most other countries never had,” Ardern said to explain why the border reopening was suddenly delayed.

“With our community better protected we must turn to the importance of reconnection. Families and friends need to reunite. Our businesses need skills to grow. Exporters need to travel to make new connections,” she said.

Ardern made a reference to the Charlotte Bellis controversy, in which the plight of a pregnant journalist drew unwelcome attention to the overloaded and slow-moving MIQ lottery system that permits only a handful of New Zealand citizens to enter their own country each month.

“It’s easy to hear the word MIQ and immediately associate it with heartache. There is no question that, for New Zealand, it has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic. But the reason that it is right up there as one of the toughest things we have experienced, is in part because large-scale loss of life is not,” Ardern argued.

The prime minister presented a rather complex five-stage program for resuming travel into New Zealand, beginning with permission for fully-vaccinated New Zealand citizens and some other designated travelers from Australia to enter the country, provided they self-isolate for ten days afterward. The border will not fully reopen until the fifth stage of the plan is reached in October.

New Zealand briefly had a quarantine-free “travel bubble” with Australia last summer, but it was suspended after only a few weeks due to the Delta variant outbreak. New Zealand has otherwise maintained strict travel bans since early 2020.

“Kiwis will no longer need to endure a stressful lottery to get home. Many people in our network are overwhelmed with emotion right now. This moment has been a long time coming,” said Grounded Kiwis, a group critical of the MIQ system that has been trying to help stranded New Zealanders return home.

Grounded Kiwis argued the Phase One permissions granted in late February should be extended to all New Zealand citizens abroad, not just those coming from Australia.

“Many of these individuals have been waiting for months already, are due to start new jobs or university in February, and in many cases are coming from locations with lower levels of Omicron than Australia,” the group noted.

The Washington Post noted “Ardern’s approval ratings have fallen recently, and she has acknowledged the strain her country’s restrictions have put on its citizens.”