574 Essentiality and mental health: experiences of migrant cross-border truck drivers at the South Africa–Zimbabwe Borderscape during COVID-19

Abstract EP3.4, e-Poster Terminal 3, September 4, 2025, 11:35 - 13:00 Aims This paper examines the mental health experiences of migrant cross-border truck drivers operating at the Beitbridge Border between South Africa and Zimbabwe during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, global public health strategies characterised by lockdowns and international border closures coincided with the designation of truck drivers as essential workers. This paradox placed them at the centre of conflicting biopolitical logics: while populations were instructed to remain at home to limit the virus’s spread, essential workers were simultaneously required to maintain mobility to sustain national economies and supply chains. Methods The study employed a retrospective qualitative methodology, drawing on memory-eliciting, mediated in-depth interviews with 30 cross-border truck drivers. Participants were selected through convenience sampling based on their availability at the Beitbridge Border Post. Results Findings reveal that pandemic-related restrictions, despite their public health intent, significantly exacerbated the mental health vulnerabilities of migrant truck drivers. Contributing factors included prolonged separation from families, grief, social stigmatisation, increased workload, diminished earnings, and pervasive fear of infection. The research underscores how pandemic responses produced uneven risk exposures through biopolitical governance, where the essentiality of labour translated into increased psychosocial burdens without adequate institutional support. Conclusions The study concludes by calling for context-specific, inclusive public health strategies in future crises. In particular, it recommends the incorporation of mental health support and social safety nets for essential mobile workers operating in precarious transnational spaces.