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Monday April 7, 2008

Pop superstar Madonna is being blamed for the surge in the number of children left in European orphanages.

The 49-year-old singer caused controversy when she adopted two-year-old Malawian tot David Banda in 2006, and is today said to be considering adding an Indian daughter to her growing brood.

New statistics show that the Material Girl’s high-profile adoption of Banda led to an increase in the number of international adoptions at the expense of local orphans.

Researchers have discovered EU countries with the highest rates of children living in institutions also had high proportions of international adoptions.

This process — dubbed the ‘Madonna-effect’ by the team at the University of Liverpool — means potential parents in places like France and Spain, are opting to adopt healthy, white children from abroad rather than kids in their own country who are mainly from ethnic minorities.

Child psychologist, Professor Kevin Browne, said: “Some argue that international adoption is, in part, a solution to the large number of children in institutional care, but we have found the opposite is true.”

“Closely linked to the Madonna-effect, we found that parents in poor countries are now giving up their children in the belief that they will have a ‘better life in the west’ with a more wealthy family.”

“Governments and orphanages can reap substantial financial gains from international adoption and this appears to be fuelling its growth but many are breaking the UN Convention of Rights of the Child which states that international adoption should only be used as a last resort in situations where all other means of fostering, adoption and care within the child’s country of origin, are exhausted.”

The study was published by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering last week.