Most of the young refugees crossing the border to Israel lack any documents. The first stage after being caught by law enforcement agencies is placement in immigrant detention centers. One of the challenges of societies and countries that are committed to the values of safeguarding human rights is to find alternatives to the detention of unaccompanied minors. The experience described herein is a rather successful model practiced in Israel whereby unaccompanied adolescents (age 14-17) are placed in residential schools called 'youth villages' as an alternative to detention.