The asylum seeker boats keep coming and, just last month, two more asylum seekers died at sea trying to make it to Australia. But Sydney marine salvage executive Captain Brett Devine believes he has the answer. He calls it the ''Devine solution''.

Under the plan, which he put to the federal government's Houston panel on asylum seekers and the opposition last year, redeveloped cruise ships would patrol the Indian Ocean between Christmas and Cocos islands, scanning the sea for asylum seeker boats. Any people found would be picked up and taken aboard for initial processing, while those without passports or identity papers would face return to Indonesia or Malaysia.

Solution devised: Captain Brett Devine. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The ships would operate in international waters and be staffed predominantly by foreign workers, to avoid Australia's protection obligations being triggered.

Captain Devine believes he could get his scheme up and running for about $50 million.