Three government agencies that partnered on a $68-million project to revamp Canada's asylum system failed to complete mandatory privacy safeguard tests for years while the project was being implemented, CBC News has learned.

The lack of privacy protections raises "red flags," lawyers say, and may have put refugee claimants' data and applications at risk.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) worked together on the "asylum interoperability project," which would transform the asylum system into a more efficient digital one and address the ever-growing backlog of pending asylum applications, which currently sits at more than 290,000 .

Earlier this year, CBC reported that the project, which

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