Dubai: Many passengers were stuck at the Sharjah International Airport early on Sunday morning due to a technical glitch in the iris scanners.
Relatives said that passengers were stranded in long queues at immigration with no food, water or cash while airport officials were waiting for a team from Abu Dhabi to fix the glitch.
A source at the Sharjah International Airport told Gulf News that the machines are now working and that passengers who have completed the iris scan have started to leave the airport.
"The eye-scanning machines were down from Abu Dhabi Police," he said. The source said that passengers were stuck at the airport until 1:30pm while a team from Abu Dhabi worked on solving the problem. The machines are used to scan the eyes of passengers who are entering the country on visit visas and tourist visas.
"Air Arabia has provided the stranded passengers with meals while Pakistan International Airlines did not provide any meals," he said.
Dinesh, a Dubai resident, said his elderly parents were due to arrive from India at 6:20am but until 2pm they had not been released from the Immigration queue.
Relatives and friends of passengers voiced frustration over what they claimed was a lack of communication by authorities.
"There is no update about what's happening… A lot of people came in on own without money or local currency and no food since 6am and the airport authorities are not helping out, there is no plan B," Dinesh said.
The Hala Saervices, a meet-and-greet airport facility he had booked for his parents, confirmed that there was an issue with the iris scanners, he added.
Others not signed up with the service had no clue about the reason for the delay. "The airlines have no clue, they said to ask immigration and immigration has no clue. Police officials said things will be resolved in 15 minutes," he said. "It's just shocking that no one has a plan."
His parents said passengers were lying on the floor, tired after hours of queuing and sleep-deprivation.
Jay Krishnan, another Dubai resident, waited for his parents' 6am flight from India to arrive but wasted most of his work day at the airport. The Hala services he booked for his parents provided them with some seating.
"Other passengers are just lying in queue, they cannot stand, it's too long not to be provided with food and water," he said.
"This is totally irresponsible behaviour. They're not keeping us informed properly…My work day is gone. There's a number of flights that came in after that and a lot of people are waiting to get cleared," he said.
The Ministry of Interior is currently dealing with the situation because the systems are directly connected with them, another source told Gulf News. "Terminal services is working on it now with the [airport] director-general."
Air Arabia has provided its passengers, who are stranded in the airport, with food and drink, he added.
