• Wegasi Nebiat, 24, almost drowned when migrant ship sank off Rhodes
• Her family paid smugglers $10,000 to take her from Eritrea to Sweden
• Shipwreck claimed the lives of three people trying to reach Europe
• Wegasi now on her way to Athens and says she’s thankful to be alive 

Her image was broadcast across the world after up to 1,000 migrants died in a 24-hour period as they tried to cross the Mediterranean in the hope of a better life

Wegasi Nebiat was saved after the wooden boat carrying her crashed off the popular Greek island of Rhodes.

The 24-year-old Eritrean is now on her way to Athens after being miraculously saved from a sinking ship by Greek islanders.

Wegasi Nebiat was rescued from a shipwreck when the smuggler boat she was travelling in crashed in rocks off the Greek islands of Rhodes. Three people, including a six year old boy, died in the tragedy on Monday

After a stay in hospital, where doctors treated her for suspected pneumonia, 24-year-old Wegasi was placed on a ferry to Athens. She is now hopeful she will secure entry into either the UK, Sweden or Germany

After being rescued on Monday Wegasi collapsed with exhaustion and suspected Pneumonia and remained in hospital for three days.

But on Thursday night she was reunited with her friends and fellow Eritrean refugees as she became officially free and boarded a boat bound for Athens at 5pm.

As she saw her fellow countrymen she broke down in tears of joy and struggled to grasp the ordeal that she had to endure in the hope of securing a better life for herself.

She said: ‘I am so happy. We are not sure what we will do but we hope to travel across Europe.’

She told of how she began her perilous journey to Europe from her African homeland over a month ago.

Wegasi Nebiat reunited with friends after her miraculous rescue

Wegasi is reunited with her friends on the ferry from Rhodes. The Eritrean was one of 100 passengers who clung to debris and almost drowned when a smuggler boat they were on founded off the Greek island

Her family paid more than 10,000 dollars to give her the chance of starting a new life in Europe hoping that she would eventually reach Sweden.

Wegasi started her journey in Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, where she lives with her father Johannes and her mother Genet and a younger brother.

She caught a bus to the west of the country to the small city of Teseney. From here the journey would become ‘painful’ as she walked 70km to Kessalla, a tiny city on the border of Sudan.