Borders architect has advice for Europe

The co-architect of Operation Sovereign Borders believes Europe should take a lead from Australia in dealing with people smuggling from North Africa.

But retired Major-General Jim Molan is not convinced boat turnbacks, used successfully by the Abbott government, will work in the Mediterranean Sea.

"Just to accept the problem as it is now at the moment will mean that people will die," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.

He said Australia's unilateral action against people smugglers was an effective solution.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the only way to stop the "terrible, terrible tragedy" unfolding in the Mediterranean was to halt the people-smuggling trade.

"The only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats," he told reporters in Canberra.

More than 700 migrants are feared dead after a fishing boat capsized off Libya on Sunday.