Manama: Two brothers are being quizzed by the Kuwaiti police in a brawl over who gets to accompany the father to London on a medical trip.
The two brothers, who have not visited their father in around one year, heard that the Kuwaiti authorities have endorsed his plea for medical treatment in London and rushed to his home to express their readiness to travel with him.
Unable to agree who will go with the father, the two brothers started an argument that degenerated into a brawl during which they traded blows, local daily Al Rai reported on Monday.
The wife of the sick father called the police to report the ominously physical and verbal family dispute.
A patrol was dispatched to the father’s home and was able after some time to bring the situation under control.
The two brothers were taken to a police station where a case of physical assault and verbal abuse was filed against them.
A security source told the daily that each of the two brothers wanted to take advantage of the medical trip to go to London and benefit from the financial allowances offered by the state.
Under Kuwait’s generous welfare system, the patient being treated free of charge abroad and two companions each receives an allowance of KD100 a day.
A commissioned study said that paying the patient and his two companions KD9,000 a month was making heavy financial demands on the health ministry and officials have called for a revamp of the system, arguing that the treatment abroad was consuming around 10 per cent of their budget.
Diplomats at the Kuwaiti embassy in London reported that some Kuwaiti citizens had problems with the British customs as they were taking out large sums of money they received as allowances from accompanying a patient and which they did not declare upon arriving into the country.
