I went on vacation to Allgäu a couple of months ago, and to save money on the flight, I once again flew in transit. This time the transit country was Dubai. The flight was very long and exhausting, I was also afraid that there would be some problems at the border of the transit country, but everything went smoothly and even no additional passes were needed. Maybe your problem is where you were flying from. Since Dubai determines who to let through its country without a pass, and who with a pass. As my citizenship is impartial to this country, I was allowed to go through without any passes.