Majority of Austrians think government handling of asylum seeker issue poor

A majority of Austrians feel their government is handling the asylum seeker issue poorly, a new survey from research institute "market" showed on Friday.

In survey interviews conducted at the end of June of over 500 persons aged over 16, it was found only 2 percent of Austrians consider their country's handling of the large recent increase in the number of asylum seekers to be "very good".

A larger 17 percent found it "good", and 29 percent "average".

Meanwhile, 35 percent described the political handling of the issue as "bad" and 17 percent "very bad".

Notably, younger people responded more negatively, so did people living in the south and east of the country.

The efforts of aid and church organizations with regard to the asylum seeker issue were however rated considerably more positively.

The survey also found the population somewhat split between wanting to help more and thinking that Austria has done enough already.