Thirty ministers representing various faiths have been granted licences to perform marriages in Trinidad and Tobago, but a significant backlog of applicants remains.
Speaking at the Marriage Officers Licence Distribution Ceremony on Monday, Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein said he was concerned when he realised the extent of the backlog in processing marriage licence applications.
“I asked for them to give me an audit of what is happening with the marriage officer’s licence, and I wouldn’t go into the details, but I can tell you on receiving that report, I was appalled. And I said, ‘This cannot happen because if so many persons are interested in being marriage officers, let’s get it done.'”
Minister Hosein noted that the 30 people who received the licences on Monday were just a drop in the applicants’ bucket.
“This is just a few, this is just a handful. I have boxes and boxes of files still to comb through, but we are getting it done. And we live in an age of technology. Why is it that we are still filing paper-based applications? Why? We are moving towards modernising the Ministry of Land and Legal Affairs, so just now the applications will be electronic, the registration of the marriages will also be electronic, and the marriage certificates themselves will also be electronic.”
One of the officers who received her licence was Presbyterian Minister Reverend Sanya Beharry. She said she had been waiting for approval since November 2020.
“I could not miss this ceremony given how long I had taken and the process that it’s been, but I am really glad that I can now perform marriages legally.”
Meanwhile, Lester Osouna, an Orisha Minister, said although the process was quite involved, his wait time was only one year.
“Nobody could come up with more than two people who exist right now who have their Orisha marriage licence. So I am around the third now existing. There are some people who have applications in. For whatever reason, they didn’t have it done yet, but we’re hoping that we will get some more in the future.”
Minister Hosein urged the new marriage officers to take their roles seriously and counsel couples seeking marriage, especially with the high number of domestic violence cases in the country.