In the waiting room, al-Jazeera news channel is showing footage of Palestinians in Gaza storming into Egypt, and carrying back baskets of food and consumer goods. They are trying to beat the Israeli blockade that has cut off basic supplies.

Some people in the room express outrage. Otherwise, it's business as usual. Employees gather documents of hundreds of "non-ID" Palestinians as they are called, following the announcement that their status would now be legalized by the Lebanese government.

Non-ID Palestinians suffer an uncommon plight: not only did they flee their land decades ago, rooted out eventually by establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, but they have been left with no legal status in Lebanon, their current land of refuge. There are an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 "non-IDs" still in Lebanon, and this has only recently led the government to announce legalization of their status.

Non-ID Palestinians came in the late 1960s, after the initial wave of Palestinian refugees in 1948 who were granted asylum as well as official refugee status. "Most came from Egypt or Jordan and were unable to renew their documents after they expired," says PLO consul Mahmoud Assadi. "Others entered the country illegally and got married in Lebanon, passing down their illegal status to their children."

The consul points to a document before him on a wooden desk. "The non-ID mentioned on this document has been able to renew his Jordanian identification, which will allow him to hopefully legalize his children's status in Lebanon. This is an exceptional turn of events! Non-IDs have little chance of changing their status when the male parent -- generally the root of the illegal status problem -- dies, leaving his children with no proof of kinship."

But most non-ID refugees hold some proof of identity that could facilitate legalization of their situation, because their Palestinian identity can be traced back to an authority once responsible for their documentation -- usually Jordan or Egypt.

There are approximately 400,000 refugees living in Lebanon. But among them the "non-IDs" are not registered with either the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or the Lebanese authorities. They are therefore unable to benefit from services granted to refugees by UNRWA, such as access to higher education and healthcare.

These refugees also face restrictions on movement outside the camps, and often fail to graduate from school because they lack proper identification papers. For some, legalization of their marriage vows is an unattainable dream, and this illegality is then inherited by their descendants.

Read More