Shannon Van Sant has directed and filmed 18 documentaries, reporting throughout Africa and Asia for CBS News, The Economist, the PBS NewsHour, and PBS television. In 2012, she was honored with a Human Rights Award from Amnesty International and the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong for her work. Her stories include extensive reporting on Chinese investment in Zambia, Uganda, South Sudan, South Africa, and the Comoros and the hunt by U.S. forces for Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. In 2011, she filmed the journey of North Korean refugees escaping through China and Southeast Asia. Previously, Van Sant spent two years as a documentary filmmaker at CCTV, Chinese state-run television. She filmed 11 documentaries for CCTV on Chinese government policies, reporting from more than 20 of China's 33 provinces.
Every year tens of millions of Chinese migrant workers head home in the largest annual mass migration of people.