Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Sunday said stopping people-smuggling boats was central to ending the wave of migrants fleeing to South-east Asia, adding he would not criticise countries' efforts to turn back the vessels.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand triggered outrage after turning back starving and helpless migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar's oppressed Muslim Rohingya minority with little food and nowhere to go, and have come under increasing pressure to rescue them.

The Australian leader, whose government introduced tough measures to stop asylum-seeker boats, said he was ‘in no way critical of regional countries for the efforts that they make to stop the boats’. ‘Yes, we've always got to be humane and we've always got to be decent, but in the end we have to stop the boats,’ Abbott told reporters in Perth.

‘I don't apologise in any way for the action that Australia has taken to preserve safety at sea by turning boats around where necessary.

‘And if other countries choose to do that, frankly, that is almost certainly absolutely necessary if the scourge of people smuggling is to be beaten.’