Simon Mayer, whose children speak Hebrew, escaped violence and discrimination on his way from southern Sudan to a new life

It was the dead of night when Simon Mayer began throwing his family over the fence. First his seven-month-old baby, then his two-year-old son, then his wife, hoisted up on his shoulders.

Finally Mayer, exhausted and dripping with blood from wounds from the barbed wire, hurled himself at the feet of the soldiers on the other side. At last, he thought, I am in Israel; my new life can begin.

It had been a long journey from the south of Sudan to the Jewish state, via Khartoum and Cairo, taking more than two decades. And now, five years after that terrifying night of being pursued by Egyptian soldiers shooting and cursing, Mayer faces the possibility of another journey – back to where he originally came from.

Mayer, a member of the Dinka tribe, left Warrap at the age of four following a wave of killings by militiamen. The young Christian boy spent the rest of his childhood in Khartoum, but at the age of 19 was forced to flee after suffering systematic discrimination, harassment and beatings.

He made it to Cairo, where in 2005 a three-month protest by 2,000 Sudanese refugees demanding to be resettled elsewhere ended in a bloody assault by Egyptian riot police in which at least 20 migrants were killed.

Mayer decided to try to reach Israel, paying Bedouin smugglers $1,000 to guide him and his family to and across the border. "I thought Israel was a democratic country," he said. He has now lived here for five years, and his four Hebrew-speaking children consider this their home.

But now he fears being forcibly returned to South Sudan. "It is not safe. Many people from my family have been killed and my father is in hiding. I fear for my life if I go back. The Israelis know very well what is going on in South Sudan. I love this country, but the way they deal with us … "