Yes, UK and USA airports all the time. Not noticed any signs in the Mid-East airports though (but I may not have noticed).
As previously said, yes, it is for security reasons.
The only comment that I would make is that it's a "B" nuisance not to be able to phone to say "yes, the flight's in, but it'll take me an hour or more to get through immigration and customs", as I would have loved to do to save my daughter waiting ages and paying a fortune in short-term-parking when a US airbus arrived at PHL at the same time as every other one of their internationals!