I got locked out of an eGate at DXB because of a bizarre situation.

I noticed that a man had gone through an eGate and was waiting for his partner, who was struggling scanning her passport and was going from eGate to eGate. I approached the eGate next to her and began scanning my passport. As my passport got read and authorised, the first set of doors opened. Exactly at this time, the idiot of man put his arm over the second set of doors of my eGate to give something to his partner. Obviously this was detected instantly and the first set of doors on my eGate closed, I presume the system thought that I was now in the middle part of the eGate where you look at the camera! I wasn't. Worse still, the camera was now asking me to look at it! I did my best from afar but it wasn't working.

I was stuck at this point and I tried several other eGates but I guess the first one hadn't timed out or reset itself so was still thinking that I was in there trying to look at the camera. Eventually, I managed to use a different eGate and got through immigration.

So, just be aware of anyone on the other side of your eGate standing too close to it or trying to pass something to their partner in an adjacent eGate. It messes things up for you!