Asylum seekers are cockroaches: UK paper

A controversial British newspaper columnist has likened asylum seekers to cockroaches and called for Europe to follow Australia's lead and threaten them with violence until they "bugger off".

Katie Hopkins, writing in The Sun, praised the Abbott government's boat turnback policy as Europe considers an emergency summit after the latest migrant boat tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea in which 700 people are feared to have perished.

"Australians are like British people but with balls of steel, can-do brains, tiny hearts and whacking great gunships," she wrote.