port character filter on `searchQuery` from vue3 version and increase by filtering leading `00`#419

Hi @iamstevendao ! I ported character filtering from the current vue3 version to the legacy version because those characters might lead to an unhandled error. I also added a minor update on the filtering regex which will allow to search countries also by the more uncommon `00` notation like: `00351` for Portugal. Can you please check this MR and include and create a release if it's ok for you? Let me know if you have any questions. :-) Thanks in advance!