I’d like to make one comment on Dr. Look Loy’s thoughtful letter on marriage.
My suggestion of a letter of indemnity to be signed by prospective couples was for the protection of marriage officers. Our Immigration Law, revised in December 2007, makes it an offence for a marriage officer to knowingly carry out a marriage of convenience, punishable by a hefty fine and/or imprisonment.
While the onus would be on the Immigration Department to prove ‘knowingly’, and while the marriage application form we are required to use, has a clause to guard against this and requires signatures and witnesses to vouch for the couple, perhaps a separate legal document would carry more weight.
Failing this, then we could be looking at a local marriage license with the attendant documentation similar to that required by visiting couples.
I hope that if and when our 1963 Marriage Law is revised it will take into account the way these islands have changed. Certainly those early law-makers could not have envisioned the current situation.
Joy Basdeo
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