It's a problem when dealing with a travel agent as they may have different Terms and Conditions from the airline. Expedia for example often say that tickets are non-changeable and non-refundable even if Emirates have different rules for the same ticket, purchased at the same time and in the same class bucket on EK.com.

Emirates won't deal with the purchaser, only the travel agent as regards making changes or cancelling so it leaves the buyer with a problem.

The poster can either call Emirates to see if he gets anywhere (which I doubt) or approach the travel agent and see if changing dates is a possibility which might save some of his expenditure. Depending on the reason for cancellation his/her insurance might be another option.