Claim: Portuguese media publish staged and fake photos of immigrants fighting fires in Oliveira do Hospital
In recent days, Portuguese social media has been flooded with accusations that some photos of immigrants combating fires in Portugal are staged or fake, with several national media outlets, including the Lusa agency, allegedly using such images.
The initial criticism emerged on Sunday afternoon, September 24, with numerous posts on X (formerly Twitter), some containing xenophobic tones, targeting Notícias ao Minuto for publishing a photograph of a “clean-suited Muslim” (examples: https://archive.is/bDxiP, https://archive.ph/5djXW).
By late afternoon, the criticism also extended to Expresso, which had published the same photo (https://archive.ph/e5AM1), questioning its authenticity with several users suggesting it was AI-generated (example: https://archive.ph/BBxmy).
The criticisms broadened to include other circulating photos, such as one showing a group of forest firefighters sitting at a long table, which was also alleged to have been manipulated by AI: https://archive.ph/Cbv6n.
By Monday, there were insinuations that both photos were generated by the Lusa agency to accompany an article on immigrants fighting fires in Portugal, subsequently replicated by various media outlets: https://archive.ph/FzXOL.
Facts: The photos are of real locations and people, but enhanced versions circulate with AI
Lusa Agency did not create, disseminate, or publish the photos in question. The media outlets that published them in their articles or associated with a Lusa text, such as Notícias ao Minuto (https://archive.ph/T3HAW) and Expresso (https://archive.ph/leuYN), sourced them from social media or a newspaper page from Bangladesh.
Lusa’s article on migrant integration in firefighting in central Portugal (https://archive.is/1r3aq), reproduced by several media, was illustrated by a recent photograph by photojournalist Paulo Novais of a fire in Pampilhosa da Serra (https://archive.is/tZAoW).
A simple reverse search reveals the controversial photos originated from an article published on Wednesday, September 20, in the Dhaka Post, about a group of Bangladeshi citizens helping to fight fires in Portugal, notably in Oliveira do Hospital: https://archive.ph/gp6Fr.
Further searches identified these photos in publications on X (https://archive.ph/jictE), Facebook (https://archive.ph/dzswi and https://archive.ph/orvpN) and TikTok (https://archive.ph/f5ZpF). However, closer examination of the versions published in Dhaka Post suggests some editing occurred.
To clarify, Lusa Verifica consulted some of the depicted forest firefighters and contacted the journalist who wrote the article, Farid Ahmed Patwary, a Bangladeshi citizen residing in Portugal and a contributor to the newspaper. He admitted using an AI tool to enhance the images’ quality.
“Since the image resolution was poor, I only increased the resolution using Picsart and did the ‘crop’ (cut). I did not make any additional edits to the images that are real and were sent to me by two forest firefighters,” said Farid.
However, comparing various circulating versions with other unpublished originals, available to Lusa Verifica, confirms that the enhancement attempt via Picsart resulted in altering some image details, notably the photo where the group is at the table.
In the Dhaka Post version, there is a notable distortion of the beer brand logos on the plastic cups and a soda bottle in the background, among other details (https://archive.ph/6AKUj).
This does not mean the photo does not depict real people, as demonstrated by comparing it with one of the unedited versions (https://archive.is/SCmOy), which also allows geolocating it to the river beach of Alvoco das Várzeas: https://maps.app.goo.gl/azVqFwSawwhfPNcX6.
This is confirmed by the president of Caule – Associação Florestal da Beira Serra, to which these firefighters belong. “The photos are real, taken by our engineers and firefighters and shared in an internal WhatsApp group within our association,” said Vasco Campos.
Campos regrets the controversy surrounding the photos and assures that there is nothing false about the work Caule has been doing for 25 years. “We have always had foreign workers, currently 20 out of 30 in our teams. They come from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Angola, and Morocco, all integrated, some already with families working and living in Portugal.”
Regarding doubts about the uniforms, he acknowledges that a firefighter appears in forest clothing instead of firefighting gear but considers the issue irrelevant. “It’s a false issue. What were we supposed to do, send him away during a time we were in a ten-day battle?” he remarks.
Verification by Lusa: False
It is false that Lusa Agency created, disseminated, or published staged or AI-generated photos to illustrate an article on immigrants’ roles in combating fires in the country’s interior.
The images published by various media were copied from the social media of the firefighters and a Bangladeshi newspaper that published enhanced versions of these real photos using an AI tool.
