My take on this is that the machine ( in this case emirates ) Believes there has been fraudulent activity and won't unblock or refund until it is clear that whatever the fraud episode was has been cleared up (better to block than risk someone accusing you of lack of care). This has been said already but I think the only way you get this sorted is at an emirates office with ID and some letter from the cc explaining what happened to the card. Once the humans become convinced then they can get the necessary approvals to override the machines if that isn't too Orwellian!