THREE-YEAR-OLD Kosovan refugee Marigona Krasniqui was last night undergoing surgery to save her sight.

The brave youngster was flown into Heathrow with Sussex aid worker Sally Becker on Wednesday after being granted a last-minute UK visa.

Now, following a detailed consultation with eye surgeon Christopher Liu, she has had an operation to correct cataracts in her left eye.

As Marigona and Sally, 38, arrived at the Sussex Eye Hospital for final tests yesterday afternoon, Mr Liu said he was optimistic the surgery would succeed.

He said: "I first came across Marigona yesterday morning, and I was only able to examine up to a certain point because she is so tiny. I still have some more tests to do.

"The problem is that the history of her condition is not clear." But he said there was a good chance of the operation going well.

Sally and Marigona were both due to stay at the hospital last night after the surgery.

Marigona will then have to spend some time wearing a patch on her right eye to give her left some exercise. It could be more than two weeks before Mr Liu can say for certain if she is cured.

Sally first saw Marigona hiding in a ruined cellar with other frightened children after crossing the border from Albania into Kosovo last July.

She agreed to help them and their parents escape to Albania but was stopped by Serb guards near the border. As the refugees scattered under gunfire, Sally was arrested and spent two weeks in jail. Sally was told the children were dead. She said: "It was only later that I found out the children were miraculously still alive because they had fled back into the forest.

"Marigona has been through so much trauma, and at one point she thought she had lost her mother.

"Maybe people will now understand why I went to prison. It was for these kids."

Since arriving in England, Marigona has been getting used to a level of comfort she has never known before.

Sally, who is looking after the little girl with partner Dr Duncan Stewart at her Withdean home, said: "She's been settling in absolutely fine. She's got all the things she hasn't had for a year, such as electricity and warm baths."

She added: "Marigona laughs all the time, and giggles and plays with my niece Katie.

"It's really funny because they can't communicate properly so they've had to invent their own language."

Marigona was originally due to have eye surgery in Moscow but it was cancelled when war broke out in Kosovo.

After her parents were denied a UK visa she was finally granted one herself by Home Secretary Jack Straw last Friday.

She is due to return to the refugee camp where her parents are waiting, at Shkodra in northern Albania, in ten days.

The family will then be evacuated to the Czech Republic, where many of the 50 other sick and wounded children Sally has spent seven months finding homes for are being treated.

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