Mid-transit visa abuse of the International Transit system on a mother and her 1 year old

My wife and 1 year old son flew from JNB to AKL via Dubai. They were allowed to board in JNB and all went well. In Dubai, they were prevented from boarding due to them not having valid Australian Visas for their flight in 3 month's time. Their baggage was removed from the plane but not returned to them. They were forced to purchase a hotel stay after being kept multiple hours in a room full of chairs. They became fairly distressed and were eventually told they were allowed to leave to get a meal. The airline could not be contacted on the number they gave her. I contacted the New Zealand Embassy in Dubai, the Australian Embassy in Dubai, the German Embassy in Dubai and the German Embassy in New Zealand, none of them could get hold of Emirates staff to identify the issue and work on a resolution as my family were now stuck in a foreign International Transit hall while being prevented from transiting. Emirates call center said our only resolution was to contact the ground staff, when I asked how my job (at 2am) was to contact their staff in a foreign country, I was told that they won't allow me to keep the line busy. My wife eventually bought a second ticket from AKL back to JNB and was allowed to board the next next flight (24 hr delay, 2 flight tickets and a hotel stay later) . The seat they gave her had a wet floor soaking an already upset baby's feet. When the flight attendants were notified of the issue, they said it is a known issue with the Airbus A380 and put a blanket on the floor as a "solution". This level of service is completely unacceptable and I have yet to understand how an airline's staff can allow a customer to board a flight after checking all visa conditions, only to remove them from a flight mid transit. As no staff would give any reasons to why this occurred we can only assume it was an attack from some otherwise bored staff. I have yet to have any response from Emirates with regards to the incident which occurred on the 23rd of October!