Marriages of convenience between locals and foreigners is likely to continue to be one of Bermuda's most knotty problems but The Marriage Amendment Act, which cleared its final legislative hurdle yesterday will stem the tide, Senators hope.

The Act, which requires people planning to get married to get a certificate for marriage from the Registrar General, was approved without objection by the Upper House. All planned marriages must now be advertised in the newspaper. The measure effectively strengthens the line of defence against what Senators agreed was a "nefarious" practice sometimes linked to crime or drug abuse.

Besides giving the Registrar General a first opportunity to detect suspicious marriages, members of the public will also have the opportunity to scrutinise planned marriages.

And that public scrutiny should have an impact on stemming marriages of convenience because "Bermudians are pokey" and would bring their concerns about suspicious marriages to the authorities, said Government Senator David Burch who introduced the bill.

Marriage officers are no longer required to call banns of marriage in congregations, but are not prevented from doing so as a tradition and courtesy for people getting married in their churches.

Instead, the amendment transfers due diligence responsibility to the Registrar General's office which works closely with the Immigration department.

And, as before, the Registrar General does not have the power to refuse to marry a couple except in cases such where one person is already married or not properly divorced.

Sen. Burch outlined existing initiatives already being taken by the Immigration department to address marriages of convenience.

Immigration reviews thoroughly all applications for spousal letters and conducts interviews with married couples, their friends, family and landlords when they have suspicions, he said. New policy established last year empowers the department to refuse to issue a spousal letter, which gives working rights to non-Bermudian spouses, if they suspect a marriage of convenience.

And in cases of impending marriage, the department responds to complaints from the public by interviewing the couple and sometimes limiting or revoking visits or residence in Bermuda.

The Department also scans newspaper marriage notices for people who might be on the Island illegally or who have been asked to leave Bermuda. And Immigration investigations are also kicked off when staff at the Registry General's office inform the department of suspicious marriage notices.

Opposition Senator Neville Darrell, a former marriage officer in Canada, raised the issue of people getting married outside of Bermuda and asked whether Government had established the scope of the problem rather than rely on anecdotal evidence or the perception of members of the public that convenience marriages exist.

Government Senators agreed that little could be done to prevent marriages of convenience that take place outside Bermuda but said that it should not be expected that one country's laws reach into another jurisdiction.

Action can be taken against such people when found out, Senator Michael Scott pointed out.

"An act cannot be packaged as an apple and condemned as an orange," he added.

Sen. Darrell's colleague, Leonard Santucci, said that transferring the burden of due diligence to the Registry General's office represented a "relief" for his fellow clergymen.

"Historically we have had to take people at their word... Often the clergy is lacking in the ability to to deal with the legal aspects."

He recalled once refusing to publish marriage banns when his suspicions were roused by the fact that the bride-to-be was not involved in the arrangements for her marriage.

Sen. Burch told his colleagues of instances where locals realise that what they thought was a real marriage was actually fraudulent, and in other cases Bermudians fully aware that they entered a marriage of convenience had become aggrieved and then went to Immigration in an attempt to throw their spouses off the Island.

But "it doesn't work that way," he said. "Many times you want to try and create laws to protect people from themselves."

More Senate, Page 7