London’s famous Trafalgar Square looked a little different Thursday morning, after several charities turned the busy landmark into a tropical “tax haven” – complete with beach chairs, pool floaties and even lobsters.
The tropical oasis – organized by international rights group Oxfam and Action Aid UK – coincides with the London anti-corruption summit, taking place Thursday at London’s Lancaster House. The meeting drew politicians from around the world, including the presidents of Afghanistan, Nigeria and Colombia, as well as representatives of financial institutions and civil-society organizations.
Thursday morning many of the leaders vowed to open up corporate records, quash money laundering and end bribery in a bid to stamp out what British Prime Minister David Cameron called the global “cancer” of corruption.
But many of the world’s leading tax havens are British dependencies or overseas territories, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
READ MORE: What does the tiny British Virgin Islands have to do with the Panama Papers?
The organizers behind Trafalgar Square’s tropical tax haven are calling on Cameron to close the tax havens with British ties.
“David Cameron needs to act to tackle secrecy in the U.K.’s overseas tax havens,” Action Aid UK’s head of campaigns Murray Worthy in a video posted to Twitter.
In a move to greater transparency, Britain has passed a law requiring British companies – including foreign firms that own British property or seek government contracts – to disclose who really benefits from their ownership. Britain said the register meant that “corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London’s property market.”
– With files from The Associated Press