Protesters transform London's Trafalgar Square into tropical tax haven

LONDON -- Trafalgar Square has been transformed into a "tropical tax haven" with palms, ice cream sundae shops, sand and even lobsters as part of a protest timed to coincide with a high-profile anti-corruption summit in London. 

Oxfam, Action Aid and Christian Aid campaigners dressed up as bankers with suits and bowler hats in central London to urge prime minister David Cameron to close tax havens in British overseas territories. 

The charities used sand glued on a huge canvas, which was then stapled to a wooden board, to create the setting for the protest. The fake bankers were seen chilling out in beach chair among fake money, coconuts and volleyballs. 

"It's a pretty light-hearted way of trying to show what is a pretty serious issue," Brian Johnston, head of advocacy at ActionAid UK told Mashable. 

"Britain has control over number of territories that are tax havens, whose role in global economy is to facilitate corruption, tax avoidance and corruption. People who are hurt most by that are people who live in developing countries around the world, with huge inequality."

"Countries are losing billions and billions every year because super-rich individuals and big companies are able to hiding their money in tax havens and avoid paying taxes they should be paying for schools and hospitals," Nick Bryer head of inequality campaigns at Oxfam told Mashable.

Oxfam claims the British government is taking "half measures" and called for the institution of public registers of offshore companies registered in tax havens.

"It's really worrying that [the] UK government doesn't seem to be prepared to everything in his power to force biggest tax havens which fall under UK control to take those steps," Bryer said. 

The Panama Papers leaks revealed that more than a half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the law firm Mossack Fonseca were registered in the British Virgin Islands, a British overseas territory. 

During the summit, Cameron is expected to announce that foreign firms that own property in the UK will have to declare their assets publicly on a new register. 

That would include those companies who already owned property in the UK as well as those seeking to buy. 

Downing Street said the register would mean "corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London's property market, and will not benefit from our public funds"

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