MADONNA’S hopes of soon being united with the boy she planned to adopt were fading last night after a human rights group in Malawi began an appeal to stop the child leaving the country.

The pop star flew back to London yesterday without the one-year-old boy, David Banda, but with a promise from Malawi that it would try to allow the child to leave as soon as possible.

The 48-year-old singer won custody of the child at the end of a whirlwind tour of orphanages in Malawi, having initially denied that she intended to adopt a child.

She had hoped to leave with David, but officials said that the immigration department was still processing his passport.

However, Eye of the Child, Malawi’s main children’s rights group, has now appealed to the Government, asking for the adoption to be delayed until a new law has been passed giving adopted children formal legal rights.

It is illegal for foreign nationals to adopt a Malawi child. Madonna has been granted an interim order and special waiver allowing her to circumvent the law.

“We submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Women and Child Development to delay the implementation of the interim order. We want to give them time to pass an Act making inter-country adoption legal and setting out the framework and rights for the adopted children,” Maxwell Madewere, executive director of Eye of the Child, said.

“At the moment children have no rights under Malawi law. Today it is a celebrity adopting a child. Tomorrow it may be a trafficker seeking to adopt.”

Another human rights group, the Civil Liberties Committee, has backed the appeal.

Children’s rights groups have statutory power under Malawi’s Bill of Rights to advise the government, so their request has to be seriously considered.

Aid agencies have critised Madonna’s decision to adopt the child, saying only in “dire circumstances” should young children be taken away from their communities.

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