They don't really, but lots of people seem to be under the impression that they do.

My dad has been in Oman this last week. We went to pick him up at the airport this evening. His flight was an hour and ten minutes late. We were at the southern exit, with a bajillion other people waiting for the passengers to come out. There were two flights left to come out of our gate, my dad's flight and another flight from Bahrain. After a while, we got a call from dad saying he was about to get his passport checked. So we waited a bit longer. He called us again to tell us that there was a huge queue of people going through customs, as in about 150 people lined up in front of him. All up we waited an hour and a half for him to get out. When we left the terminal there were still heaps of people waiting with balloons and flowers.

At the other exit, the northern exit, the very last flight for the night landed. It got in 20 minutes after my dad's flight. It was from Los Angeles. By the time we left, all the people from the northern exit were gone. Because, you know, everyone from the flights from the middle east could be a terrorist, so they are checked thoroughly in customs, but somehow all the people coming in from America are safe enough to let through quickly. We paid a lot of money for parking.

On another note, my dad got paid in cash for his trip (it was a business trip). He got paid in $US and I just held the money. t looked like a bundle of money from a hollywood gangster's suitcase, but it didn't feel like it was worth much at all. Mum is really suspicious. She thinks it looks like monopoly money, and I tend to agree with her. It has lots of pencil markings on the notes and it looks like you could set it on fire heaps easy.