Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has said that his country has developed “incredibly creative” approaches to stopping asylum boats from reaching its shores.

He said: ”We have stopped the trade and we will do what we have to do to ensure that it stays stopped”.

In a radio interview on Friday morning, Mr Abbott refused to deny reports that the Australian Navy ship paid the crew of a migrant boat to turn back to Indonesia.

However, the country’s immigration and foreign ministers have denied allegations that a payment was made to the crew.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry says it is “very concerned” over the allegation.

According to BBC, Police in Indonesia East Nusa Tenggara province had earlier said that they had detained the captain and crew of a boat on people-smuggling charges in late May.